


And Wash Away the Sky

by LadyRhi



Series: When Angels Fall [2]
Category: Reylo - Fandom, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: A Power Like Life Itself, Action, Anakin Trolls Luke, Badass Rey, Banter, Ben's A Good Teacher, Canon Divergence, F/M, Feels, First Kiss, Fix-It, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Dyad (Star Wars), Forgiveness, Free Will or Fate?, Happy Ending, He's a Solo, I Love You, Kissing Lessons, Light & Dark, Lightsaber Battles, Luke Trolls His Nephew, POV Ben Solo, Prophecy, Protective Ben Solo, Reconciliation, Redeemed Ben Solo, Redemption, Retelling, Reworking that Ending, Reylo - Freeform, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Skywalker Family Drama, Skywalker Family Feels, Soft Ben Solo, Spin the Lightsaber, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers, The Dark Side of the Force, The Dyad is Both, The Force Ships It, True Love, Yoda Trolls Everyone, wink wink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:00:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 29,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24414754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyRhi/pseuds/LadyRhi
Summary: Ben Solo rushes to Exegol in the wake of the woman he would give anything for. He knows that despite her doubts, she will stand to face the greatest evil the Dark Side has ever conceived. Whatever she faces before the Dark throne of her grandfather, he vows that he will be at her side. As he reaches out, determined to let her know that she's not alone, he puts everything he has into their Bond...into what ties him to the other half of his soul.When she answers, everything changes and the Dyad's power comes into its own.~A New Ending for TROS~
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo
Series: When Angels Fall [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1763125
Comments: 20
Kudos: 72





	1. When All Is Lost and Daylight Ends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is the sequel to my first fic, _[When Angels Fall](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24131167/chapters/58099069)_. If you haven't read it yet, you don't need to in order to understand this one. However, please know that there are two major plot points that were altered by that story which have an influence on what happens here. If you don't want WAF to be spoiled, then stop now and go read it first. On the other hand, if you want to bypass the other story and still read this one, then carry on.
> 
>  **Spoilers for _When Angels Fall_** … Ben has kept his lightsaber! That's right, he didn't chuck it into the sea of Kef Bir. He realized it might be a bit … well, inadvisable … to head off to fight the sithiest Sith Lord ever without it. So he clipped it back on his belt and set off to Exegol armed. Additionally, Ben has not fully turned from the Dark Side, reaching to embrace both sides of the Force, though he admits that he will always lean more towards the Darkness. There's more to it than that (again, see WAF), but that's all you really need to know to appreciate what happens in this story.
> 
> One last thing to help you as you go along ~ take note of regular italics vs. bold italics. If a sentence is just a thought, then it will be in _regular italics_. However, if it is a mental conversation between Ben & Rey through their Bond, then the words will be in _**bolded italics**_.
> 
> Much love ~ ♥

The bright lights of infinite stars streaking past receded as the ship came out of hyperspace and Ben looked out at the titanic battle being waged above the forsaken planet with impatient agitation. The Resistance had made it through the red gas barrier guarding the way to the last bastion of the Sith, he saw, having followed the same trail himself. It took only a quick glance, however, to realize that there were far fewer rebels than the First Order's analysts had estimated. General Pryde's strategy for rooting them out had clearly been more effective than they'd realized. Taking in what the cohort of mismatched fighters threw themselves against with desperate abandon, the former Supreme Leader found himself regretting his troops' success.

They were massive. Each of the new _Xyston_ -Class Star Destroyers was fully the size of a First Order dreadnought. They were reinforced by impenetrable shields and armed with point-defense turrets that their opponents stared precariously down the throats of. It was the huge cannon mounted on each capital vessel, equipped with the devastating capabilities of a planet-killer, though, that promised true destruction. Protecting each leviathan were swarms of modified TIE _Daggers_. They tore around and through the Resistance ships, too fast and too many for the hapless rebels to implement a viable response to. It was a horde ready and fully able to burn away all remaining defiance in the galaxy. Ben had known the first time he'd seen it that with this fleet, Palpatine had all he needed to finally realize his Dark dream of eternal supremacy.

Far off to his right, an X-wing was separated from its squadron, flames sparking out behind the left-wing shield projector and thrust engine. As he watched, the fighter made a valiant effort to bob and weave, but soon the hunters on its tail caught up to their quarry and the ship was blown into space dust. The small flicker of lifeforce in the cockpit snuffed out as the pilot was added to the tally the war had claimed. He felt frustration at the disarray, the waste of manpower the Resistance was pitifully short of. It wasn't that he grieved the rebels' losses, but they were the only thing delaying the deployment of the Sith fleet and he needed them to hold, to buy him time.

This wasn't the real fight.

Ben took a last look at the hopeless battle that certainly ensured the definitive end of the Resistance before turning his rickety ship towards the planet's surface. Against all odds, he'd managed to find a rusty, but serviceable Imperial TIE in a partly-submerged hangar of the Death Star. The Force was certainly guiding him, but it was a stretch even to him to think it had somehow ensured a random ship in the jumbled wreck of the space station happened to work thirty years after it crashed into the sea. Ben believed that luck could work in his favor, at times. He was Han Solo's son, after all. However, years of battle experience and more than a few of his father's stories had taught him that it rarely chose to be quite so helpful. Whatever was buoying his fortunes as he raced to follow in Rey's wake without a plan beyond making it to her side, he chose not to question it.

Exegol was as sinister and oppressive as he remembered, the very air charged with volatile energy as bolts of electricity stabbed towards the sky. Spying a ship grounded near his destination, he set down precariously beside it. Ben winced as the craft lurched, hitting the ground with a teeth-rattling jolt. Whatever optimistic quirk of fate that had kept it going this long, he doubted it was up to a return journey as every sensor on the dash flashed red in surrender. Sighing in relief, he took a moment to unlock his fingers from their death grip on the TIE's steering yoke and looked at the rather rusty ship to his left briefly in wonder. The ancient X-Wing his uncle had let him climb around on as a child, stories of extraordinary heroism filling his mind, looked the worse for wear. Considering that it'd been a battered bucket of bolts during the Galactic Civil War, that said something about the extent of its sorry state, now.

He'd never thought to see _Red Five_ again, but he shook his head, forcing himself to focus. He didn't have time for nostalgia. Undoing the safety straps was the work of a moment and he paused only long enough to check that his lightsaber and pistol, usually clipped to his wide leather belt, were secured to the waistband of his trousers. Jumping down from the cockpit and turning sharply towards the gaping entrance to the fortress of the galaxy's greatest evil, his resolve only grew.

She was here. Ben could feel her. A lone beacon of light flickered in the bowels of the citadel, wavering with fear and growing doubt in spite of the determination he sensed bolstering her advancing steps. Whatever insecurity she felt in herself, though, he didn't share it. He knew she had the resilience to endure even within the very heart of Darkness.

He took a deep breath and ran, following the siren's song of her Light. The newly-reignited flame within him rose in answer.

Heart beating thunderously and breath sawing from his lungs, Ben reached the entrance, but found his progress frustrated by the refusal of the lift to respond to his Force-pull. Something or someone must be holding it in place, seeking to prevent further intrusion. He couldn't afford to let this slow him down, though. He had to keep moving. Without hesitation, he leapt into the black pit, slamming into one of the enormous chains that bound the lift to the planet's surface above.

"Ow."

His ribs protested the hard landing, but urgency drove him to ignore it and keep moving. Climbing down into the haunted cavern that had concealed Palpatine from the galaxy, the gloom gradually receded as a spectral light seeped out from vast cracks in the stone below.

When Ben had first made this descent, he'd been unmoved by the fearsome statues that loomed impossibly tall overhead. He'd been intent on the pull, the compulsion to face whatever shade of Palpatine still lived and end his machinations forever. Jealous rage had fueled his relentless search after the emperor's voice had reached out from what should have been his grave. Looking up at the imposing figures now as he worked his way down the chain at an agonizingly slow pace, he bared his teeth in a snarl, defiant in the face of the old Sith's sentinels.

Finally, his boots landed on rough-cut stone. The muscles in his arms and core screamed with an achy weariness, pushed too far for too long. He refused to heed them, though, and took off in a lumbering run towards the chamber where a Dark throne stood vacant. As he ran, he pulled his blaster from where he'd tucked it at the small of his back. The hem of his shirt got in the way and he cursed at even this minor impediment as he kept moving forward.

A gift from 'Uncle' Lando, the small, but powerful side piece was one of the few remnants of his old life he'd kept. Ben had cleaned and maintained it, though he'd never once used it since becoming Kylo Ren, favoring his red-bladed lightsaber with exclusive faithfulness. He didn't really know what premonition or whimsical conceit had prompted him to attach the blaster beneath his cloak when he'd set out to confront Rey on Kef Bir. As with the miraculous discovery of the old TIE, however, he didn't bother questioning and just huffed a breath of gratitude as he pelted through the murk. It meant he wouldn't have to slow his pace if he ran into trouble on the way to the throne room, at least.

Fortunate, as it turned out. Flicking his thumb to turn off the safety, he held the blaster at the ready as he sensed several lifeforms converging on him.

The first came from behind, struggling to fix him in the sights of their own firearm as the sound of heavy steps bounded to overtake him. Not even bothering to look, he pointed his weapon directly behind him, feeling the lifeforce of his would-be assailant extinguish as the plasma bolt drilled into the guard's forehead.

Ben's father had been the one to teach his son to shoot, giving him a wink and ushering him outside one day when his mother was off at some political function or other. As his shots had unerringly hit the mark with extraordinary consistency, Han had picked up on the fact that his pupil was using the Force to guide his aim. His father had scoffed and made the boy stop, insisting that he learn a few things through good, old fashioned skill. At the time, he'd still gazed up at his father with hero-worship, so Han Solo's son had learned to become a crack shot through patience and a steady arm, to the veteran smuggler's pride.

Years later, Ben could still hit the bullseye with ease…and if he'd given the bolt a small nudge with something more to ensure his aim, the Sith loyalist wouldn't be mentioning it to anyone.

_Sorry, Dad…_

More cloaked and hooded lackeys came lunging at him as he went, but he quickly disposed of them with only passing annoyance, intent on his goal ahead. As he drew closer, though, the dull lifeforces of the guards drew back, clearing his way.

_I've got a bad feeling about this._

Rounding a corner, Ben took the turn at speed and had to quickly course-correct with a skidding slide. Momentarily distracted by the laws of gravity, he didn't sense them until he'd taken several more long strides into the cave-like chamber.

A masked figure appeared ahead, bringing him up short. Recognizing Vicrul Ren, Ben's head jerked up and he felt a charged frisson of energy course along his spine. He turned to the left, seeing the armed figures of two more of his Knights stepping from the shadows and feeling the other three take up positions on the other side and behind. His initial instinct to breathe a sigh of relief at the unforeseen reinforcements was quickly stifled as he noticed the ready menace with which they held their unique arsenal of weapons. Warily, he reached out, probing for intent and what he found caused his stomach to clench.

_I should have known better._

The Knights of Ren had been a "gift" from Snoke when his apprentice assumed the mantle of Kylo Ren and took up the bloody destiny his sadistic Master had driven him towards. The truth laid bare in the minds circling him now showed that, as with all of Snoke's schemes, their supposed fealty had been a method of control concealed by a pretty deceit. But then, Snoke himself had been nothing more than a puppet used to manipulate the Skywalker heir. Now that he'd slipped the leash and Kylo was no more, the Knights revealed their real loyalty to the puppet-master himself.

A thorn of wounded pride bit deep. Ben would have thought that after all that had happened one more betrayal wouldn't have moved him. The blow landed, however, and he fought not to buckle under it. Seeing the lethal intent in the Knights' movements as they closed in, he knew he couldn't allow them an opening by showing his weakness. He forced himself to pull it together and focus.

Locking his hard gaze on the eye slit of Vicrul's mask, Ben held his arm out slowly to the side and let the blaster fall to the ground. It was useless against them, even though their strength in the Force was meager. He couldn't shoot in six different directions at once. Cruel snickers came mechanically through the modulators built into the helmets surrounding him. He felt their derision and the exultation of finally being set loose to put down the unworthy cur the Lord of the Sith no longer had a use for.

"Looking for mercy, _Solo?_ " Vicrul stressed his name tauntingly, slowly swinging a wickedly-hooked weapon in the air, bringing it to rest across a shoulder in readiness. "It has no place here."

"No. It doesn't," Ben said calmly, nodding to his would-be executioners right before reaching down and drawing the heavy black hilt into his hand. Raising it, he moved his thumb up to the ignition and watched with cold satisfaction as the Knights drew back in consternation. He'd shed the stiff bulk of his tunic in the TIE after jumping to lightspeed, having felt the need to move more freely, be less constricted. It left him in only the shirt he wore beneath his uniform, its length enough to obscure his saber from view, affording him a momentary advantage as they recovered.

With an aggressive stomp of his booted foot, Ben fell into an opening stance. Just as Vicrul and Ushar snapped to and raised their heavy weapons, he swung his spitting blade with a violent snap of his arm. His other hand pushed out behind him, sending a concussion of Force energy crashing into the foes at his back. If he had to face them all, he wasn't about to let them unite to attack him in concert.

Kylo Ren hadn't been the Master of the Knights of Ren for nothing. He'd faced each in combat, forcing all of them into submission and establishing his dominance within the Force to bring them to heel. Whatever strings had been plucked by the fingers of a hidden mastermind, Ben had won his place through genuine merit. He felt the respect they grudgingly still held for his prowess as he reached out with this mind to predict the movements of the two opponents before him. There was a streak of fear there, too, but it was sternly tamped down in favor of hatred for what the man they'd been made to call 'master' had become.

Seething, Vicrul moved forward into him with a quick volley of blows while Ushar came around with his staff in a smashing blow aimed at Ben's knees. Parrying Vicrul's strikes made it necessary to wrap both his hands around the hilt of his saber as he deflected them, but he was able to spare enough concentration to direct a gestureless Force-push at the head of the staff coming in low. The longarm rebounded and staggered its wielder backwards.

Sensing the furious swell of the minds behind him, he knew the other Knights were back on their feet. He needed to act quickly.

Cutting his lightsaber to the side and angling it upwards, Ben managed to find the leverage to step forward and lock onto Vicrul's scythe with the qillons of his crossblade. Exerting a small flexion of the Force, he held his opponent's weapon in stasis for a beat. Taking immediate advantage of the Knight's incapacity in order to shove his more significant weight forward unexpectedly, he turned and broke his way out of the circle of death.

Releasing his hold on Vicrul, he instantly moved to slide into a new attack aimed at beheading the Knight. He'd badly misjudged, however. As he'd gone past his struggling foe, he'd moved too close to where Ushar was regaining his footing. Ben raised his red blade for a killing blow, adrenaline and an infusion of Force energy offering a deadly promise to his victim. Before he could land his strike, though, the huge club-headed staff came up and smashed with crushing momentum into his side.

While his loose shirt allowed him to move more agilely, he was made suddenly and keenly aware that it offered little in the way of protection. Not that his tunic would have saved him when Ushar's kinetite-charged weapon smashed his ribs before landing the blow to his chin that knocked him to the ground. Still, any extra padding would have been nice.

Looking up at Ushar with a baleful glare as he shifted his feet to rise, the butt of the staff came about to strike Ben right in his bared teeth, splitting his lip. Another blow landed from behind, forcing him down to his knees. Each spiteful strike added to his frustration, but it was the swift sweep of Vicrul's hooked blade catching the hilt of his lightsaber and tearing it from his grasp that had him growling with furious dismay.

Ben watched in horror as the uneven blade retracted and the hilt disappeared into the choking shadows. Listening intently, he caught the sharp sound of the weapon landing far off ahead of him along the passageway, beyond which an unnatural glow beckoned, mocking his impotence. When he raised his hand to call it back, though, a blow struck his hand away and he knew he wouldn't be able to retrieve it before the effort was rendered tragically superfluous.

_No. Not like this. Not before I even reach her._

Bent double and gasping shallowly past the crushing pain in his side, Ben looked up in livid defiance. Vicrul's war scythe was raised menacingly again, a show of posturing that he used to intimidate his victims. Ap'lek and Trudgen circled closer with their heavy blades poised to strike while Kuruk and Cardo both trained their firearms on their fallen master. Ushar reached up to the flared head of his staff and stroked his gloved finger almost tenderly through the smear of blood he found there.

They had been his men, his Knights. They'd followed the mighty Kylo Ren with what had seemed like loyalty and an eagerness for the death and terror he'd once called on them to unleash. But not now. The Knights of Ren would not bend the knee before Ben Solo.

Blood dripped from his lip and his head felt like it was about to explode from the pain, but he refused to let his wounds distract him from his purpose. His thoughts reached out for Rey, determined to let her know that she wasn't alone.

Whether it was the intervention of the Force or his own desperation leading him to find some purchase on the power of their Bond, Ben felt the sudden pull that drew him beyond his physical surroundings. The sound of heavy footsteps circling downed prey faded and the very air seemed to still. His immediate danger as the Knights loomed around him fell away and the only thing that mattered appeared before him. She glowed with that ethereal Light that he would not ever allow to be dimmed.

_**Rey. I'm here.** _

Their eyes met as they had so many times before. The eerie glow of the deep fissures pitted throughout the chamber lit her face as fear-scored lines smoothed away, but then her expression froze with indecision. She looked as though she was torn between one emotion and another, afraid the one she longed to allow herself to feel would be the wrong one, once again. Ben would not disappoint her, not now. Putting all the power of his chaos into their connection, he willed it to transform and ground itself in the purpose he'd found in the renewal of the life she'd gifted to him. He dropped the last of his barriers before her and instead of Darkness and fury, fierce and unreserved devotion traced a path of pure Light along the tendrils of fate that tied his heart to hers.

Her mouth opened slightly at the vow his eyes made to her across the Bond. He felt her begin to let herself believe. To hope. Holding her gaze, Ben let what strength he had left flow through to enfold her.

_**You're not alone, Sweetheart.** _

Her breast rose in a sigh. Relief and awe echoed across to him, but it was the reciprocation of his admission _—_ his promise _—_ shining from her that filled him with courage and certainty despite his beaten body. Whatever was to come, whatever they'd face before the Dark throne, the last of his fear slipped away as he heard her voice reach out to embrace him in return. Ben knew without the slightest doubt that no matter how far he'd once fallen, beside this woman he would only rise.

_**Ben.** _

Heart soaring, he sent her an image of the Knights slowly stalking closer, tightening the circle, raising their weapons with death dancing in their minds behind their masks. Along with the vision he asked for something. He saw understanding in Rey's eyes and he nodded minutely, encouragement and raw belief passing across the Bond.

Belief in her. In them.

Returning the small gesture in affirmation, she raised her arm up, passing it behind her head and pressed her lips together, grunting in effort. He could feel the strain, the unsure, yet determined probing through the Bond as she tried to figure it out, to get it right.

Ben, too, reached up and behind. And the hilt slipped into his palm, small phantom fingers brushing his. She faded away and he stood tall, drawing forth the burning blue blade.

The plasma hummed, filling the air with the radiant peal of the Light. But in his head…

He'd held his grandfather's lightsaber only twice before. Once, was when he'd confiscated it and marched Rey through the corridors of the _Supremacy_ to face Snoke. It had been sullenly silent then. The second had been when Rey threw it to arm him against the last of the Praetorian guards. It had come to him, true, but it hadn't reached for him in return, hadn't acknowledged him. It had been as though he held a trooper's baton, dull and lifeless. But now, it sang in his mind, connecting with something inside of Ben that he'd long denied the value of beyond the power it granted.

_**Skywalker** _

As Anakin and Luke had before him, Ben opened himself to what the kyber at the saber's heart urged him to embrace, and let the Light flow through him.

The prowling Knights froze in shock and Ben lifted his shoulders in a dramatic shrug of pure Solo snark, half-intoxicated by what had just passed between him and his mate within the Force as the heady song continued to echo through the vaults of his mind. Without allowing his enemies a chance to fully recover from the confounding sight of a lightsaber being drawn from thin air, he struck.

The grinding pain in his side and head could easily have forced him back to his knees, but even as he channeled the power of the Light to face those who'd borne witness to some of his Darkest deeds, he drew from the other side of the Force to lend him strength. Ben used his physical suffering as fuel for the fight. It was odd, discordant, but felt strangely right, like a foundering ship finding purchase as its thrusters worked together as it passed into hyperspace.

Lightning-quick, he whipped the saber through the air, scattering Vicrul and Ushar back. As they stumbled, he stepped into Ap'lek slicing a burning lash through the Knight's neck. The others quickly sprang into action as the first of their number fell and he spun immediately to meet the closest attacker. With fierce, sweeping strikes, he brought them down, one by one in ruthless succession.

Light and Dark energies wove an intricate pattern through Ben as he turned to face his final foes. Ushar had tripped and gone down when his Force-push knocked the man back, but Vicrul had stood by at a distance, watching. Waiting.

Ambition was one of the core values of the Dark Side and Ben had long known of Vicrul's thirst for greater power _—_ _his_ power. The man observed, waited as the others were cut down by their former Master. Then, as he threw the fumbling Ushar backwards into one of the deep, glowing fissures that scarred this hateful planet, Knight and Master stood facing one another. The scythe was raised and its savage blade cut the air in an attempted show of dominance before the challenging growl cut off in a choking gasp.

The Knight looked down at himself, impaled on the blue blade shining from his chest. Unprepared for the Force-fueled leap attack the commander he'd followed into battle for years had never favored, the warrior could only stare blankly from behind a metal mask out into the Dark as knees buckled and his body slipped to the ground.

Ben spared no time to reflect over the corpses of those who had once held his trust to fight by his side. He bolted down the passageway leading to the massive chamber at the heart of this Dark fortress. He didn't pause to search for his lightsaber as he passed the spot he'd heard it land because he knew it was no longer there.

After she'd faded, he'd sensed Rey's attention turn, searching. When she'd found what she was looking for she'd pulled. It answered her call, as it once had before in Snoke's throne room. Then, he'd been shocked that his kyber crystal would respond to Rey's summons, unready to examine what it might mean for himself and the woman who'd been bound to him through the Force. But when it had flown from the rough stone floor to her waiting hand, slicing through Exegol's miasma, Ben had felt a thrill of elation burn through him.

Throwing his mind ahead as he raced through the choking murk, he felt her, his own blood-red blade alive in her fist, fighting a similar battle to the one he'd left behind. Flickers of lifeforce spread out around her, but one quickly snuffed out after another the closer he drew. A huff of pride escaped him, but he pressed on even harder, all the same.

_That's my girl._

A guard stood before him as he barreled into the vast chamber, weapon raised at the ready. Ben saw the man's back, muscles tensed for attack, knowing it was Rey the blow was meant for. His vision tunneled and the furious dirge of the Dark overshadowed the bright clarion of the Light burning within him and he raised his hand. With his mind, he pierced through flesh, muscle, and bone to reach the throbbing organ he sought and gave a vicious yank. The man flew backwards, falling with a lifeless clatter, heart crushed into pulp.

Ben raised his gaze from the body at his feet and it immediately softened as joy filled his chest. She was there in the center of the cavern, and with her foes lying in crumpled heaps about her, she turned to regard him with equal awe.

They were still connected. Though they'd lost sight of one another after the lightsaber had been passed from her hand to his, the extraordinary sense of oneness that they'd reached for flowed with the burgeoning power of the Force. Both Light and Dark wove through them and along the fibers of their Bond. The glory of it grew stronger with each step he took towards her until they stood together, burning with a potential they'd each hidden from in their own way.

Ben looked down briefly at the jagged red blade she held at her side. It looked ridiculously big in her hand, made as it was for his much larger one. Yet, she gripped it steadily.

_**Want it back?** _

Her voice came effortlessly through to him across the Bond and he raised his gaze. Her hazel eyes held a hint of laughter and a challenge, having followed his line of thought. He could feel her confidence with the oversized weapon, having learned to wield a lightsaber in the first place with his grandfather's, which was really too big for her, as well.

_**I think we'll manage.** _

They were both exhausted and feeling their wounds, but this wasn't over. Holding her eyes for a heartbeat more, Ben memorized their shape and the brightness that seemed to shine from them, as though they were sprinkled with stardust. Then, he gave her another nod and they turned as one.

Their sabers rose in unison, one red the other blue, in an unexpected alliance ordained long ago. They joined their songs together and created a unique harmony that called upon their joined spirits to rise as they faced the blackest depths of the Dark.

The fallen emperor hung from the mechanized arm that supported him, watching with interest as they stood against him. His corpse-like skin drooped, milky, sightless eyes and rotted teeth peeking out from the sagging ruin of his face. The monster had been amused by Rey's show of defiance before, he'd felt it tremble through her. Now, however, the cowled wraith looked down with disdain.

"Stand together, _die_ together!" Palpatine spat, throwing ruined hands out, skeletal fingers bent like ghastly claws.

Their lightsabers were flung from their hands, again clattering away into the shadows. The Force gripped them both in an agonizing hold, clenching and squeezing around body and spirit. Ben felt a terrible lessening, a diminishing, as though a parasite were drawing the very lifeforce from him. He sought to strike out in an avenging blast of Light, then a furious blow of Dark, but he could not gain control of either. He was helpless, useless.

Suddenly, the vampiric siphoning cut off, leaving him gasping, Rey bent over double at his side. Ben shot her a quick look to check that she was all right, and saw that she was no worse off than he. Peering up at their torturer, he caught a choking breath of dismay.

_His face…_

Palpatine's mottled, sagging skin had tightened around the bones of his face. The morbid pallor remained, but the whiteness of his eyes had darkened, hints of irises breaking through the haze that obscured them. The emperor was ignoring them, staring down in amazement at his hands. His stomach churned as he watched the exposed bones of Palpatine's fingers enfolded by fresh, new skin.

_It can't be._

Ben felt with terror at the raw wounds that had been ripped into his lifeforce, gored, mauled. Torn away. To his right, Rey shivered with the same pain.

He knew what this was.

"The lifeforce of your bond," Palpatine croaked in a stronger voice than before. Those haunting eyes lifted to gaze down upon the twisted gift the Force had created to bring balance only to be served up for the last Sith Lord to gorge upon. "A Dyad in the Force. A power like life itself. Unseen for generations."

Ben had fought to conceal this knowledge from the man who'd thought to use him. As he'd searched the galaxy for Rey, desperately seeking to win her to his side, he'd fended off the frustratingly familiar groping claws sinking into his head. As the power behind Snoke, Palpatine already knew of the Force Bond, but the deeper truth of the Dyad was a secret he'd withheld with a cold foreboding of how the old evil might seek to use it. And now, the fears he hadn't even dared consider were becoming a reality.

The Sith reached out once more, malevolent intent bleeding through the Force.

"The power of two restores the one, _true_ Emperor!"

Gripped so hard this time that he and Rey dangled above the ground, the pain ripped away at them. Ben heard Rey scream, adding to his torment, but he refused to cry out himself. Palpatine had taken so much from him and his family already. Too much. He'd not offer up his suffering.

It went on and on for what seemed an eternity. Driven to such an extreme of pain that he was beyond sight or sound. He no longer saw the sadistic emperor upon the dais nor heard the heart-wrenching screams from beside him.

There was only pain. So much pain.

Finally, abruptly, the vise released its punishing grip and Ben felt his body crash brokenly to the ground. The torture had ended, but the scalding affliction continued in the aftershocks of such brutality. He couldn't move, barely able to breathe around the misery. Only dimly was he aware of Palpatine's voice as his senses returned.

"Look what you have made."

Chanting filled the enormous cavern as the Dark court rose in twisted celebration. Ben couldn't see the emperor from where he lay, prone on the ground, but he knew what the cruel theft must have wrought. He felt at the essence of his existence, once strong with his youth and power, made even more potent when united with its match within Rey. Now, it was a weak, quivering wisp of what it had been. So diminished was he that he couldn't reach for the Force. He barely even felt it.

With an agonizing effort, Ben turned his head, looking for her.

"Rey," he whispered, but any intention to speak or reach for her was cruelly taken from him as the Force gripped his body all over again, pulling him up by the scruff of his neck like a misbehaving loth-pup before its disapproving owner.

Ben raised his eyes to meet Palpatine's, furious and refusing to submit, even now.

_Never._

The Sith peered up at him in disgust, anger twitching at the corner of his revitalized lips. Ben felt Palpatine gather the Force around him.

"As I once fell…"

Ben felt himself thrown through the air. He flung his arms out in panic, still unable to connect to the Force to save himself.

"…So falls the last Skywalker!"

The words, spit out with venom, followed Ben as his body smashed into the rocky ledge of the immense pit before the Throne of the Sith. The blue glow from below reached up in horrifying invitation as his mind lost its hold on reality.

He fell.

* * *

Darkness. Pain. Lost. _Where are you?_

_**Ben?** _

His thoughts were fractured as consciousness bloomed in his battered mind. He opened his eyes, but immediately squeezed them shut again at the piercing glow of the luminescent rock surface that surrounded his fallen body.

_**Ben?** _

Was someone calling him? Curious, he made himself lift his head, raising his chest off the ground with his forearms to look around. No one.

_**Ben, please.** _

Her terrified voice through the Bond finally registered. The Force was still just out of reach, but it seemed their Bond was far harder to dislocate.

_**Rey!** _

A ripple of relief came to him and it helped clear his mind a little. Rubbing his face, Ben hissed as his fingers dragged over bruises and abrasions from the beating he'd been through.

_Well. Beatings, I guess. How many times have I been knocked on my ass today?_

She heard the thought and it startled out a small spurt of laughter in her mind, but then the fear overwhelmed the Bond, once again. She was still up there _—_ alone with her grandfather.

_**I need you, Ben. I...I can't do this alone.** _

Ben had believed nothing could ever defeat Rey, but after what they'd just faced, he knew that neither of them was strong enough to defeat Palpatine alone. The crippling doubt that strained her mental voice broke his heart, spurring him to grapple up onto his feet. He had to get back to her. He'd barely straightened, though, before he crashed back down, slamming to his knees. A hot throb had exploded in his lower leg when he'd put his weight on it and frustration filled him as he carefully probed at it.

_Broken._

He hadn't meant for her to hear his irritation. Rey was in far more immediate danger and needed to focus, but he was too tired to try and hold anything back from her.

 _ **I wouldn't want you to**_ , she whispered, almost shyly despite the peril she was in, but then turned to the issue at-hand. _**Your leg?**_

_**Yeah. I must've broken it when I landed.** _

The ache in his side and jaw had redoubled, as well, and Ben suspected a few more ribs had snapped under the force of Palpatine's tender mercies. Pain lanced up and down his spine and a pounding ache caused the inside of his skull to practically vibrate. He stretched, trying his best to assess the extent of the damage, but ultimately determined that _everything_ hurt.

And then it didn't. The shattering discomfort from a variety of breaks, hairline fractures, and torn muscles eased. Not entirely, as he still felt each wound keenly, but he could breathe without his lungs hitching in reaction.

_**What…?** _

He heard Rey gasp, sensed her shudder as her leg suddenly felt like it had been crushed and her head pounded from Ushar's blow. His eyes widened in shock.

_**No, Rey! Stop!** _

_**I NEED YOU, BEN!**_ she repeated, her mental scream shaking him to his core.

She was somehow taking a portion of his pain into herself, bearing it for him. He saw through the Bond how she'd done it, but there was no time to wonder at the seemingly endless possibilities they kept discovering.

_**Come back. Come back to me, please.** _

Her voice was no more than a despairing whisper, now. Hurting and trapped. Ben had promised himself she'd never be made to feel abandoned again and a Dark swell of anger helped him rise to his feet. He ground his teeth to hold back a howl at the torment he felt despite her sacrifice for him. He raised his arms, set his eyes on the open maw of the pit above, and climbed.

* * *

"Foolish child! You refused the power I would have granted you."

"I don't want it. I don't want anything of you."

"You do not see, even now. Or you do not wish to see."

Ben heard the echoes of the tirade taking place above him. Rey had tried to lie still, to pretend torpor to evade notice, but her grandfather had called her bluff when she couldn't hold back a whimper as he'd slipped and been forced to jam his wounded leg into a crevasse on the rock face to hold on. The sensations had reverberated through the Bond and he'd cursed that his clumsiness had cost them both.

"I see clearly what you would have of me, but I won't give it. I will NOT hate. Not even _you_."

She was playing for time, distracting Palpatine in the hope that it would give him a chance to reach her before the Sith Lord grew tired of the prodigal granddaughter.

"Then you are nothing, lesser even than the pathetic waste of life that sired you."

Ben heard the furious snap in the words and his stomach clenched.

_**Careful, Rey.** _

_**Will you just focus on kriffing climbing?!** _

_**Yes, ma'am**_ , he snarked, hoping his humor would help ease some of her fear. Ben didn't know how he found the energy for levity, but he figured he would do just about anything for this woman. Thankfully, she gave a mental huff that was both surprise and pleasure which told him his gambit had worked and he got back to 'kriffing climbing.'

_Bossy little thing._

_**I heard that.** _

If he'd had breath to spare he might have laughed at her pithy response. He held off on further banter, though, as much as he found a perverse enjoyment in it, despite their current situation.

"My father was stronger than you'll ever be. He cut himself off from the Force to free himself from you."

The Force swelled with silent thunder briefly, and he heard a loud crash above him. As one who'd spent a fair amount of time slashing innocent hardware to smoldering pieces, Ben knew what a Force-fueled temper tantrum felt like. He smirked. Rey was getting under her grandfather's skin, making the old Sith lose focus. So long as she wasn't the target, this worked in their favor.

Rage was a favored and potent source of power for the Dark Side, but annoyance could be a hindrance. Throwing Palpatine off-balance with frustration would make it harder for the Sith to direct the flow of the Force effectively. It was still dangerous _—_ to a truly fatal degree _—_ but it was something he could work with. Ben passed his thoughts along to Rey through the Bond, encouraging her to keep at it.

"It must have been such a disappointment to realize your son and heir despised your legacy so much that he threw it away. Your empire, your power. In the end, _you_ were the one who became _nothing_."

There was silence, but the violent stirring of the Force that was now building like a maelstrom was telling.

 _Bad idea_ , they thought in unison. He gritted his teeth and pushed himself to climb faster.

"You're no grandchild of mine," the Sith growled in a deadly voice. "And now, little Jedi, you will _join_ your father."

Energy cracked through the air and Rey screamed before the sound was sharply cut off. Invisible claws scratched at Ben's throat, pain shared across both ends of the Bond.

"Let your death be the final word in the story of rebellion."

Hand hold after hand hold. Slip, catch. Gasp of pain. Hand over hand, boots looking for purchase. Up and up, then…the ledge!

Ben's hand slapped the rock that had knocked him out as he'd fallen. Pulling with everything he had, he dragged himself over the edge and back onto solid ground, panting from exertion and agony in equal measure. His eyes, widened in horror, stared up at Rey, held fast in the torturous grip that was crushing her throat. Ben lunged for her, but crashed to the floor as his leg gave out. Crawling, he moved forward, the horror of impending, unendurable loss tearing him apart as he felt her lungs collapsing. He tried to take more of it for her, to will her chest to expand, to breathe for them both, but it was no good.

Through the storm, a flicker of something distracted him. He ignored it, engulfed by the sight of Rey suffocating. Frozen in helplessness.

_My Rey! My Light, no!_

The scream she couldn't get past the invisible grip on her throat ripped its way out of him. Ben's muscles seized, the veins on his neck stood out in stark relief, and a vessel in his eye burst, flooding it with red agony. The outpouring of incandescent anger and fear surged through him and he suddenly sensed the raging currents of the Force within reach, once again. He felt that tug on his mind, strong and urgent enough now to draw his attention. Looking over, he saw it.

He slowed his breathing, refusing to look at Rey's straining body. In and out, he breathed, centering himself enough to draw upon the power surrounding him.

_I have the strength to do this. For her._

Ben's hand flew out and a black streak flung itself towards him in ready answer. As his fingers closed around the hilt, the three red blades ignited, the kyber within screaming an echo of its master's fury. The Force finally rising to his command, he stood, feeding his pain into it, allowing the Light to wane and stoking the Darkness higher.

One Lord of the Dark sought to extinguish the Light, but another would give everything to defend it.

With a sharp gesture of his free hand, Ben threw a surging wave of vengeful ire at the Sith. Too distracted to even have noticed his return from where he'd been disposed of, Palpatine was thrown back, collapsing onto the Dark throne.

Rey fell, the Force-choke broken, hacking and rasping as her lungs struggled to fill with air. She hit the ground hard, legs buckling beneath her. Maintaining an eye on the writhing heap of black and red robes, Ben stepped over and bent down to help her stand. She grasped at him with frantic fingers, still unable to pull in a full breath. He reached an arm around her waist to steady her, practically holding her up, while keeping his lightsaber between them and the gasping Sith.

With her tucked safely into his side for the moment, Ben focused once more on the Bond. Feeling his way through it, unsure, but determined, he slowly started to piece the concept together. His breathing hitched as he synchronized the movements of her lungs with his own. He almost passed out, but pushed his mind to focus on steadying their now-shared rhythm, easing air in and out.

"Be _—_ " Rey coughed and he felt the burn of her lungs as they worked with his, relearning their necessary movements. Slowly, she got her feet back under her and her grip on his shoulder loosened, though she didn't let go. She raised her eyes, lips quivering with the shock reaction after what she'd just been subjected to.

 _I almost lost you_ , Ben thought to himself, but of course she heard him.

"But you didn't," she rasped, moving her hand to rest on the cheek where the scar she'd taken back had once been. "You saved me."

He didn't have time to respond or to mentally process the warmth of her palm against his skin.

A groan came from before them, turning ominously into a growl. The Sith Lord rose from his throne, glaring vengeful daggers at them both.

"Insolent whelps," Palpatine bit out.

"Your faith in your power is your weakness, and it will be your undoing," Rey tried to shout at her grandfather, though her tortured vocal chords couldn't put the force behind it that she'd intended. The emperor laughed in derision.

"Your faith in each other is yours," Palpatine countered as pale hands stretched towards them.

Ben released Rey's waist, shrugging her hand off his shoulder, and pushed her gently behind him. Then he stepped forward, saber extended in challenge. Rey was having none of it, though. She stepped around his restraining hand and moved to stand beside him.

She captured his gaze as it turned to meet hers. Staring down into her eyes, Ben was mesmerized by the sudden smile that spread across her face. Without breaking eye contact, she held her hand out and he felt the Force surge. Anakin's lightsaber flew to her hand as it once did in the snow-blanketed forest of a doomed planet. Blue light mingled with red when her finger moved over the ignition switch, bathing their faces in a glow that was not wholly Light nor entirely Dark.

Beside her, he felt invincible.

"And now, young fools...you will die."

They snapped forward, raising their weapons as savage bolts of purple lightning arced forth from the Sith Lord's hands, lashing out towards them. As the emperor had subdued Luke Skywalker and weakened Vader to the point of death, the Dark power sought to eradicate the last traces of their legacy.

Moving as one, they held their lightsabers up as shields, keeping the lightning at bay. He felt his muscles struggle, tremble to hold firm, and Rey gasped at his side. They were managing to withstand the Sith's assault, barely, but he honestly had no clue how to overcome their enemy. Ben's mind frantically tried to come up with something, anything they could do, hearing Rey doing the same through the Bond. Neither could think of a way, though, and he felt their connected spirits waver.

The sabers shuddered in response, blue and red plasma forced slowly back towards their wielders. Fighting his own weapon as he watched the jagged red blade inching towards his face, inspiration struck.

_That's it!_

Rey had said it herself, as had Luke before her _—_ Palpatine's own power was his undoing. The idea filled Ben's mind and the jolt of his excitement caught her attention.

_**What is it?** _

They had to act fast, so just as with their passing of the lightsaber, he sent her an image of what he was thinking. At her nod, Ben pulled not on Rey's mind this time, but on her soul. Instinctively, he drew it into his own, or perhaps she drew his into hers. Maybe both. He felt her slide seamlessly into place, almost gasping aloud at the sensation of perfect alignment between them that they'd only felt a hint of during their battle aboard the _Supremacy_.

It was like coming home.

_**Together…NOW!** _

Jointly drawing on the Force, Light and Dark, they wrestled their lightsabers forward, pressing against the tide of the Sith's assault. The Force rose up around its Dyad, singing out a benediction for an ancient dream rendered into human flesh, and the stars themselves shook with their defiance.

In perfect tandem, they each took a step forward, leaning physically into their counter-strike. Slowly, eyes boring into Palpatine's and watching recognition of what they were doing grow there, they shoved the energy of the lightning back. It bowed up, straining against their efforts, but was forced into submission by their combined power and sent arcing back on its wielder in a blazing scourge. Then in a collapse of total defeat, the will the Sith Lord was exerting over the Force broke in a violent concussion.

Ben and Rey were thrown back, landing on the ground hard. Pain scourged him as Rey lost her grip on it, the full torment of his injuries hitting him all at once. His mind went horribly blank and his heart arrested in emergency. The last thing he saw was Rey's bloodied hand reaching for his.

And then everything went dark as an agonizing breath rattled out from between his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **My BTS Ramblings...**  
>  I fully admit to poking fun at some of TROS's details, such as Ben's blaster and the TIE he arrives on Exegol in. They weren't particularly believable story elements and came across as rather silly when examined, but they're there and I felt the mischievous urge to highlight them in a rather ostentatious way. If you're angry at me for this, I do apologize. Well. No, I really don't. I hope, however, that you find it in your heart to forgive me and allow my snark to slide. Star Wars has a tradition of including hokey details that ultimately add to the overall character of the story, so my approach really is an attempt to pay a humorous sort of tribute to that. It comes from a place of love!
> 
>  **Star-dusted Eyes:** Ben refers to Rey's eyes as 'star-dusted' a few times in this story. It's such a romantic phrase...one I belatedly realized I'd read somewhere else before writing this! When you read it, please take it as a tribute to the gorgeous writing of [kaybohls](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaybohls), who wrote the fanfic this phrase comes from, [Stardust](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15344100/chapters/35603877). Go give it a read! ♥
> 
>  **The Emperor** : Ian McDiarmid did such a fantastic job in his reprisal of his signature role, clearly loving every moment. Though Palpatine wasn't what I was hoping for in the Sequel Trilogy, if it had to happen at least he gave us a fabulous performance. Like Leia in the second half of "When Angels Fall," I thoroughly enjoyed writing Sheev, particularly his heart-to-heart with his granddaughter. He's a top-tier sassmaster and probably the first villain I ever adored. I mean, the man could probably get away with shooting off finger guns after half his lines! I hope I did him justice.
> 
>  **The Title** : As with WAF, the title of this story and its chapters are lines from Breaking Benjamin's "Angels Fall." The song is about perseverance and fits both Ben and Rey so perfectly.


	2. I'll Carry You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "The minute I heard my first love story,  
> I started looking for you, not knowing  
> how blind that was.  
> Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.  
> They're in each other all along."
> 
> Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Much love! ♥

It was cold. So very cold.

But there was no more pain. No more fear. There was sadness, however. Sorrow for what he'd found only just as he'd lost it. A twisted sort of irony he knew all too well.

_So weak. You have too much of your father's heart in you, young Solo._

Weak, indeed. He'd spent so much of his life running away, first from his childhood misery, his powers and the destiny his family insisted he'd follow because of them, then from his shame, and even his name. Ben had offered it all up, his identity, his power, and his innocence, in supplication to a Dark Master who'd traded in lies and empty promises.

The name he'd worn to cover up his past, the mask he'd hidden behind, was gone. The sins remained burned into Ben's soul, however. Even the compassionate touch of the Light couldn't absolve him of them. Now, he paid the price for it all, giving in wretched, eternal torment what he could never repay in any other currency—as those he'd robbed of their lives could never return to the ones they'd fought for, neither could he. Ben had cared with all his heart and the last vestiges of strength left in his failing body, but to save what he treasured he'd had to die for it.

But she lived.

That was his consolation, if there was any to be found in all of this. Though Ben would never again share in the happiness and peace he'd found with Rey for the brief time in which their souls had slipped so perfectly into one another, he carried the knowledge of her survival into the Darkness with him. An exchange he was glad to make.

_Your death for her life? What kind of balance does that bring?_

The words echoed as if from far away, from another time, another place. Another life.

Whatever icy hell he'd found himself in, Ben would abide in some contentment knowing that she lived on in the Light, kept it shining for all those in the galaxy who needed it. There was Darkness in her, true, but she was more than a match for it. The cold abyss that was her inheritance would never dampen the rich and enduring warmth of the radiance she'd chosen for herself, instead. She could find the balance and the galaxy, the Force, and she herself would be all the better for it.

She didn't need him.

_I NEED YOU, BEN!_

Her terror, her desperate longing to have him return to her side, filled his mind and would have brought tears to his eyes if he were capable of them as he was, now. She'd been so afraid, so hurt, and it had been him she'd reached for. It had made Ben feel impossibly strong, unconquerable, as all the fury of the Dark Side never had. He'd fought to make his way back to her, knowing that whatever desperation she felt was matched by his own for her.

The thought seemed to breathe a hint of warmth into the cold place where he'd been banished to dwell within. Her grace had done that, thawing the barriers he'd frozen his soul away within. Untouchable, unreachable, and unlovable. Until she proved him wrong on all counts. Ben would always be grateful for that. But he knew the fearful call, the words of want for him to be with her were the product of the moment. Palpatine had stood over her, a spiteful strike away from extinguishing her Light forever. Now, however, the evil had been conquered and the goodness she embodied could live on and thrive in safety.

No, he was no longer necessary. The icy miasma descended once more, stealing away the meager solace like the heat of the sun cloaked behind storm clouds.

Most of Ben's memories were like that. At times during his training under Snoke, images would fill his mind from childhood days that came before everything had gone wrong. Before his family had been broken, before he'd been sent away, before a life-altering truth had destroyed so much more than his mother's political career. Before he'd given in to the voices in his head. Before he'd given up.

Snoke, or rather Palpatine, had plucked each shining recollection from his head, twisted it and given it back sans the lingering comfort they'd once been able to bestow. Slowly, Ben had been stripped of almost every precious remembrance that could nurture the ailing Light within him. Perhaps he was going through the motions of it himself, now, with no Master to do it for him.

Or perhaps that's truly how it was. He just didn't know, anymore.

Ben screamed out the pain of it, the broken shards of all his hope digging deep. It had been the one dream he'd allowed himself to hold onto after stumbling across an unexpected spark of Light on a battle-torn planet. But of course he was unworthy of it, of her. Whatever good he'd done in fighting to save Rey and end an old evil that had long been left to fester, it could never have made up for what had come before. What affection could she, or anyone, ever feel for someone like him?

_You're a monster!_

The righteousness of her denouncement made him writhe. 'Monster,' she'd called him, and 'snake.' A vile, treacherous beast that could never be redeemed for his trespasses.

_**Come back, Ben.** _

Her voice was equal parts relief and torment, a just punishment. A true hell, where the remnant of Kylo Ren could endure the full weight of what he deserved. Suffering in return for suffering. The torment of how he'd believed she cared, had ached for him as he had for her, would repay his pride with each lash of recollection.

_**Please. Ben, just … please.** _

Clear and vibrant, the sound of her soft voice coated the whip marks of his penance like acid. Ben's own voice cried out, again, in agony, already beyond enduring what he'd been condemned to. How would he bear an eternity of it?

_**Don't do this. Don't go where I can't follow.** _

But he already had. Ben was where he belonged, a place she and all her Light would never be subjected to.

_**I'm here. You're not alone, Ben.** _

Another memory, but this one untouched, untainted. A darkened room onboard a warship bound for a doom no one had anticipated. Not the place for a miracle, but it happened there all the same. A sad young woman, drenched and shivering from cold and heartache. Tears had slipped down her soft cheeks and she'd raised her eyes to look upon a creature who did not consider himself worthy of her regard. Light from an invisible fire had danced across her face, casting shadows that failed to conceal the glimmer of something powerful deep within her gaze. A hand outstretched in invitation. A touch that had reignited something in him that had been buried long ago, hidden away.

Thinking of it now set fire to Ben's soul, burning away the frozen wasteland in which he'd been lost. He saw a spark of light and followed it, longing, hoping. Even if this was a trick, another lash of punishment, he would always reach for her. He swore the promise would always be answered, returned in kind.

_**Neither are you.** _

And he rose from the abyss.

* * *

Now there was pain. Grinding, scalding, gut-clenching pain that pounded into him with renewed vigor.

"Ow."

"Ben!"

Her voice. It really was her.

_Rey!_

Ben's eyes snapped open and he bolted up. Then he hit an invisible wall that knocked him back down. He groaned in misery, his skull ready to fall to pieces. But then he felt warmth cradling his head and shoulders, waves of comfort spreading out from them like a brazier. He lay there for a moment, soaking that sensation in, breathing easier with each inhale. When he dared to open his eyes again, he looked up and there she was.

She was upside down.

He frowned in confusion, staggering mind attempting to determine why Rey would be upside down. It didn't make any sense. Ben was further thrown when she let out a choking laugh, as though it startled it's way out past tears. He blinked, completely lost in the maze of how much he hurt, the sound of Rey's unaccountable, watery amusement, and the laws of physics that had somehow gone haywire.

Rey laughed harder, but moved her right hand to press one of her fingers into the space between his brows, forcing the lines there to smooth away. His right shoulder was cold, suddenly, and he was rather proud of the logical deduction that the warmth he'd felt there had been her hand. Which meant the slight weight on his left shoulder must be her other hand. But what was at the back of his head…

She shifted above him, the corners of her eyes crinkling as his mind limped along, and when the surface his head was balanced on moved with her it hit him.

Ben hurriedly cleared his throat. Taking a deep breath this time, he braced his muscles and started to lift himself, regretfully, out of Rey's lap.

"Take it slow, okay? I'll help you," she said, easing her arms under his upper body and helping to keep him steady as he made the arduous journey upwards into a sitting position. They both stayed that way for a minute, Ben attempting to keep his head from spinning off his shoulders, and she unsure he wouldn't end up flat on his back again if she let go. He took a few breaths, stretching his lungs and straining the ribs that Ushar and Rey's grandfather had snapped between them. The hot, pinching pain helped to clear his head and he gave a cautious nod.

 _ **I'm okay**_ , he sent to her.

Her hands stayed where they were for a moment, ensuring he really was stable enough for her to let go. When she did, Rey shimmied herself across the floor to his side, not caring for the filth she was dragging her knees through. They were both covered in layers of it, so it made little difference. She settled herself at Ben's side, facing him, pressed thigh-to-thigh in order to be close in case he became lightheaded, he gathered as her mind continued to probe at his.

And, well...other reasons.

"Sure you're all right?" she pressed, her eyes searching his intently, unconvinced.

"Yeah," Ben managed. "Just great."

Then there was a rushing sensation and bright flashes filled his vision. Everything became something of a blank, but then a steadying trickle of Light flowed through his mind, helping him to clear it. Blinking a bit, he saw that he was still upright, but not under his own strength. Rey's arms had wrapped around his body, holding him up, and he must have reached for her in response, as his own arms were tightly wound around her waist.

It was nice. More than nice.

Seeing Ben had regained his stability, Rey pulled back, resting her palms on his shoulders, again. Without thought, he tightened his grip in protest, not wanting her to back away. It startled them both and he gave her a slightly embarrassed look, though his arms remained where they were. She settled, not seeming to mind and he allowed himself to relax a bit.

They sat there like that, subdued and more than a little unsure. Here she was, in his arms, in his mind, and in his very soul. Finally! Yet, Ben didn't really know where to go from this moment.

What happens once the dream has come true?

Worrying at the impasse they'd wedged themselves into, he peered warily at Rey. She was looking back up at him, but she had a mildly distracted look on her face. Puzzled, he reached out through the Bond to settle his mind against hers and saw she was working away furiously at something _—_ had been doing so since before he'd woken up, in all probability. It was then that Ben realized that while he was still in so much pain, it was not as debilitating as it had been. And then, as the recognition of relief hit, he suddenly became aware of the rapidly dwindling energy within Rey.

She was healing him, but after everything they'd been through and done she was running on reserves that were dangerously depleted.

"Rey, stop," Ben said urgently, his voice coming stronger with the revitalizing Force she was pouring into him. He shook her gently to get her attention, not caring if it rudely broke her concentration. "I'm fine. You need to stop before you end up in a worse state than I'm in."

Jolted from her semi-trance, Rey fixed him with a frown. He could sense that his tone annoyed her, registering in her irate mind as 'insufferable.'

"I'm trying to help! You can barely sit up on your own, as it is, and if I hadn't in the first place you'd still be unconscious," she ground out contentiously, trying to hide her exhaustion.

She was gearing up for an argument, he could tell. Rey's brow had lowered in that ominous manner that usually precipitated the hum of her lightsaber springing to life and even though her hands stayed perched on his shoulders, he felt the agitated _tap-tap-tap_ of one of her fingers like a warning signal. Still touching her mind, though, and unsure how to withdraw from it at this point, Ben could feel the tremulous fear that lurked behind her bravado. She was a breath away from full-blown panic and he recognized it, having been in her place not long before as he'd watched her grandfather choke her to death.

 _I almost lost you_ , she thought to herself, though he figured she knew he could hear it, too. Unable to keep her hard façade up any longer, her face fell and the corner of her mouth quivered as she fought the horror of what further loss _—_ the loss of _him—_ would do to her.

As strong as the connection they'd forged and accepted had become and for all they'd shared through it, he was left reeling from the powerful emotion that filled her to the point of bursting. It humbled him and sparked an extraordinary pride at the same time. It took his breath away.

A tear dripped down her cheek and Ben leaned forward a little, looking into her eyes with a tender reverence he'd never have thought himself capable of.

"You didn't lose me, Rey," he whispered and gave her a small, rusty smile as he repeated her words back in gratitude. "You saved me."

Another tear fell, but the despairing look on her face transformed into something disbelieving. She pulled back, again, but only slightly. Just enough to take in his whole face, the unsteady smile. Then the Light burst forth as she answered with one of her own.

"Ben," she whispered back and never had the sound of his name brought him such pleasure.

Her hands moved from his shoulders up to rest lightly against his face and a thrill ran through his whole body at the contact. Ben had spent years armoring himself against the touch of another, afraid to feel too much and the punishing pain that came when it inevitably turned sour. He'd locked himself away behind a metal mask, a stiff uniform, and gloves. The touch they'd shared so briefly a year ago had been the first time someone's skin had brushed against his since he'd taken the name, 'Kylo Ren.' Feeling the soft drift of her fingertips now, his own hands pressed more firmly into Rey's back, trying to sink through the thin layer of fabric, hungering for so much more.

Rey met his eyes, gazing into them as though looking for confirmation of something she was finally allowing herself to believe in. When she found it, she moved without any further hesitation.

Her lips pressed to his and the sacred grace of it ignited the stars themselves.

It only lasted for the space of a few heartbeats, but it was everything. Had her efforts to heal him failed and his time been up, Ben would have passed into the Force having known true joy.

Thankfully, his heart beat on.

As they parted, Rey smiled, again, and he found himself laughing down at her tiredly, moved beyond his habitual antipathetic reticence. She couldn't seem to get enough of the sight, her eyes widening to take it in. They sat quietly, once more, but this time there was no awkwardness or concern. Her fingertips stroked his face, content to simply be there. With him.

Ben could barely bring himself to believe she was real or that she was his. Bound deeper than any other Force Bond known, the other half of the Dyad to which his fate had been tied could have been anyone. And to think it was Rey whose side he had found himself standing at.

_A miracle._

No. She was so much more.

Rey was his mirror, for as you stare at your reflection the features you know so well are reversed before your eyes. As his soul was home to the depths of the Dark Side, with a small, but ever-burning ember of Light at its core, Rey was the opposite. She glowed with Light, a living conduit to that wellspring he'd always identified with his mother, but a shadow lurked within all that radiance. They pushed and pulled at one another, now more Light, now Dark, but evening out to the extraordinary balance they had only ever achieved together.

Ben's reflection, perfect and balanced in every detail.

His mother had been right. His death could not have purchased the opportunity for Rey to find balance. It would have robbed her of it irrevocably.

Looking into her eyes now, Ben felt complete as he'd never believed possible. Their souls had been drawn into one another during the battle against Palpatine and they remained nestled together, reassuring warmth and a soothing chill sliding along one another in peaceful contentment where their edges met. Two souls, they were, with individual identities and thoughts and ambitions, but they fit together as though designed for the purpose. But of course, they had been.

His thoughts had wandered far and deep, and he sensed her mind following in their wake, absorbing his conclusions and silently offering her agreement, a joyful hum along the tendrils stretched between them. It made him swallow rather thickly past a lump that had unaccountably formed in his throat and he tried to cover up the tremor in his hands by pressing them more securely against her back where they rested. Searching for something to distract from the intensity of where his mental wanderings had taken them both, Ben grasped for the first neutral topic he could come up with.

"Why _Red Five_?" he asked a little hastily, but with genuine curiosity, thinking of his own ancient hunk of junk grounded outside. "I know it's Luke's, but my _Whisper_ would've been safer. Less likely to fall apart in hyperspace."

"Oh. Right … your ship. Uhmm…" She shifted in his arms, eyes darting off to the side. As he watched, her face flooded with a deep red flush that he found strangely endearing and he couldn't help but be entranced by the sight, so un-Rey-like as it was.

_I must have hit my head hard._

But then the still-functioning part of his brain, uninhibited by the insensibility he seemed to have been reduced to in the space of a few minutes, gave an insistent nudge and he felt his stomach sink in premonition.

"Rey. Where's my ship?"

She sighed, giving up dodging his gaze and raising her eyes to meet his.

"I left it on Ahch-To," she answered, but her tone was decidedly hesitant. There was definitely something she wasn't sharing.

"All right," Ben said slowly, drawing out the last syllable. The sneaky suspicion was growing stronger as she fought not to squirm. He raised his eyebrows, telling her with his expression that she'd better go ahead and spill the rest of it. As she continued to waver, he had an idea and reached out with his mind to see what she was worrying at.

_**Stop that!** _

Her rebuke for trying to look at something she chose not to show him directly was as sharp as if she'd slapped his face. Ben shook his head to clear it. It appeared they'd be unable to hide much from one another and, of course, that was the problem. Without any walls between their minds, respect of whatever privacy they were left with was going to be tantamount. And, true to form, he'd blundered on ahead at the first opportunity and violated her trust.

 _ **I'm sorry**_ , he apologized, speaking through the Bond, as she had. It stung that he'd erred so badly and he couldn't quite face having to verbalize it, knowing he'd probably screw it up, anyway. This was emotionally safer, easier.

"Just go ahead and tell me, Rey," he said aloud, trying to get them back on track and side-step the awkwardness he'd landed them in. "I'll find out when I check its tracker, so you might as well."

_Would it still work? Ugh! Yeah, it probably would with my luck…_

Ben heard her thoughts, as though she were muttering to herself. Since they were surface thoughts and he heard them without intent due to their connection, she couldn't get angry at him this time.

Well. She could, but he considered it wise to stay quiet and wait her out, either way.

Her face screwed up in consternation, but then she let out a huff of defeat.

"I wrecked it."

"You crashed?!" His eyes widened in alarm. Ben held her body out from where she was tucked into his side, looking her over. After the fight against Palpatine, it was impossible to determine whether any of her wounds were from a rough landing. Moving his hands up to her shoulders and then down along her arms, he only stopped when she lifted her own hand to give his shoulder a light shove.

"I didn't _crash_ it!" Rey's eyes flashed with insulted outrage at the suggestion that she'd ever fumble a landing.

He sighed with relief. She was a talented pilot and he'd had no concern when she'd pinched his TIE that she'd be able to manage the ship, despite its specialized modifications, calibrated to his personal and demanding specifications.

"Okay. Okay," he said a little breathlessly. There was a buzzing in his head as the adrenaline-filled rush of panic dissipated. Ben moved his arms back around her, where they belonged, taking comfort from her presence more than her words.

That insistent corner of his brain gave another solid kick, trying to refocus his struggling synapses on the salient issue at-hand.

"So. If you didn't crash it, how did it end up wrecked?"

Pirates or spice runners were a possibility. They were a chronic problem along the hyperspace lanes, particularly for lone travelers the further out from the Core you went. Then, he frowned as another idea presented itself, one far more uncomfortable. Considering the standing bounty the First Order still had out for the 'Scavenger,' Ben thought with a wince, bounty hunters were another likely candidate, though he wasn't sure how she would've been recognized flying his fighter.

"I kind of…destroyed it," she said slowly, her fiery spurt of exasperation fizzling away as she raised her shoulders awkwardly. "…deliberately."

"Destroyed it," he repeated slowly. Exhaustion pulled at him, but he didn't think that accounted for why he was having a difficult time following her. She wasn't being too articulate about the details.

"I set it on fire," she blurted quickly.

That spelled it out fairly clearly. For a solid five seconds he could only stare at her blankly. Then his brain finally rebooted.

"YOU WHAT?!"

"I was angry with you!" she shot back immediately, indignation back in working order.

"So you torched my TIE?!"

"Yes!" She shouted back as though it had been a perfectly reasonable reaction.

"Force, Rey! That's the second ship of mine that you've demolished today!"

"Well, maybe you should've taken the hint and stopped being such a _kriffing idiot!"_

Ben was left looking at her helplessly, once again. Here she sat in the wreckage of a monumental battle against the last Sith Lord, covered in filth, blood seeping from a multitude of cuts, confessing that she'd wrecked his ship _—_ _his_ ship! And she had the audacity to call him an idiot as though she stood resplendent in full Jedi regalia in the Council Chamber of the temple on Coruscant.

_This woman is an even greater threat to my sanity than she is to my ships._

The wonder of his fiery Bond-mate quashed his umbrage over her destructive tendencies and Ben found himself distracted by the sensation of her thumbs rubbing back and forth against his face. The echoes of their shouting match filled the cavernous chamber and still she was pressing her palms to his face so very gently. Her thumbs continued to brush his skin lightly as though unconsciously trying to reassure herself that he was really here, really alive.

That he was really Ben, not Kylo.

Despite his indignation, his arms had remained wrapped around her back, holding her firmly. She was closer to him than anyone had been since his mother had handed him over into his uncle's care as a small boy, and the intimacy was so much more profound than the simple physical fact that her body was pressed against his. As he stared down at her, he felt the heady sensation of her Force signature still melded with his own, perhaps permanently.

It was going to take some effort to get used to that, but it felt so wonderful and so right.

His fit of pique allayed, Ben let out a long breath that vibrated with something close to a laugh, releasing the tightly-wound tension. His lightened mood was brought up short, however, at the sight of the watery sheen that had formed in Rey's eyes and the fine lines pulling her brows together in distress. The corner of her mouth was wobbling, again. With a pang, he realized the outpouring of emotions had burst the seal off of something she'd been struggling to hold back, to contain, all day. Perhaps longer. Yes, much longer.

"You'd been hounding me across the galaxy! You showed up everywhere I went, _pushing_ and _demanding_ , trying to _control_ me," she almost shouted, jutting her jaw out belligerently. Then the ire seeped out of her and she gazed off over his shoulder, her face haunted like she was remembering something that would give her nightmares for years to come. Following along in the wake of their thoughts, he knew where her mind had turned.

Ben recalled the sense of dreadful power emanating from the room he'd watched her stumble and fall out of in the dripping husk of that drowned throne room. He thought of the visions he'd been subjected to on Dagobah at Snoke's command only to run in fear, destroying the fell cave so that no one would ever know what transpired there. To master the great power so few in the galaxy were gifted with, either the Light or the Dark Side, one must first master themselves. Their fears and their weaknesses. Whatever the Force had shown Rey, the test had shaken her spirits badly.

She sighed shakily and he felt it deep in his own chest. Ben thought he'd do anything to take that despairing shadow from her eyes.

"I just didn't have anything left in me," she finished in a desolate whisper, voice raw with an inner turmoil and doubt he knew all too well.

Grief at how far he'd driven her tightened his own throat painfully. On some level he'd sought to help her recognize and accept who she really was, what she could become, but it had really been for his own selfish purposes. Ben knew the regret would follow him to the end of his days.

She continued to stare into the memory of that horrible vision and he just couldn't take it anymore. He was desperate to dispel the heavy weight of the Darkness that gripped her mind, needing to see her face light with that look he'd swear he'd carry in his heart forever. He wanted to see her smile, again. Tightening his arms around her waist, he gave her a gentle squeeze and she blinked dazedly, attention slowly coming back to the present.

"To be fair," he began sternly, regarding her with a serious expression. When Ben felt her mind fully come out of the haze and focus on him, he raised a brow with the superiority he knew she found as _insufferable_ as the tone he'd used earlier. "I'm not the one who pulled out a lightsaber every time I tried to have a conversation with you."

Rey's eyes widened in shock at being called out for violence by _him_ of all people before embarrassment flooded her cheeks. Her eyes locked onto his cocked brow, though, and her sheepish expression transformed into one of splendid outrage. She opened her mouth to deliver what he was sure would have been an impressive insult calculated to knock his ass down a peg, but then stopped, staring in surprise at Ben's lips. The corner of his mouth had quirked up in the spitting image of the smirk that had once driven a rebel princess crazy even as the man wearing it had stolen her heart. Judging from Rey's reaction, it was having the same effect on the last Jedi.

_At least, I kriffing hope so!_

Ben watched with avid interest as she swallowed thickly, eyes still on his mouth. It made him brave enough to lean into her as he hadn't dared to in the turbolift a year ago, tightening his arms. His movement brought her eyes back up to meet his and he waited while she decided how to react to his obvious intent. Rey had been the one to reach out and touch her lips to his first, but the part of Ben that had been abandoned and left wanting too many times found room enough to doubt, to whisper that it had been nothing more than gratitude and the wild emotions of what they'd been through. As he sat with her so tantalizingly close, though, the other part of him that had reveled in the joy of their connection as the Bond reopened, sought to quiet his uncertainty.

Rey only looked up at him for a heartbeat before she smiled. That luminous, heart-stopping up-tilt of her lips that made his breathing run ragged. Choosing to listen to the voice that felt so sure and strong with her hands on him, he closed the distance and pressed his mouth to that beautiful smile.

It was as chaste and sweet as the first time, a celebration of something new between them that sent a thrill along the connection between their souls. As she responded, one hand moving to the back of his neck, something within their bonded souls solidified.

The rush of sensation from where they physically touched was too much to process _—_ lips, noses brushing, hands, arms, and oh, the way her fingertips felt on the tender skin at the nape of his neck. He instantly memorized every texture, the ridge of each scar he encountered, and the supple firmness of muscle. It all added up to form a concept so entrancingly precious and complex. It was all magically, intrinsically _her_.

_My Rey._

Her fingers moved into the hair that rested on his collar as though responding to the possessive thought and he felt a tear slide down his cheek. He had never thought to be touched this way by anyone. Though Ben had secretly wished for her affections as well as her partnership the many times he'd held his hand out to her since they'd met, he'd not truly imagined what the reality of it could be. He lost himself to it. Unlike his fall to the Dark Side, however, his yielding to this, to Rey, was full of a tender and magnificent promise.

Distracted by the gentle glide of her fingers in his hair, Ben didn't notice at first that her other hand had moved until she was tugging at one of the arms he had clasped behind her. He loosened his grasp and let her pull it between them, too fascinated by the unbelievable silkiness of her lips to pay it any mind.

_Softer than I'd imagined._

He felt bereft, though, as she broke the kiss and eased back a little. Looking down in confusion, he watched as she wove her fingers through his, clasping his hand warmly. She met his gaze and he understood.

She was taking his hand, at last. Acceptance. Belonging. Devotion. All of those things he'd ached for and so much more.

Ben felt his lips tremble slightly as he took a breath, but he didn't care. Where once he'd felt vulnerable and weak by baring his emotions before her, he now felt secure and strong. Souls already entwined, he reached out through the Force, wrapping her mind in his like an embrace. When she let out a shuddering sigh of her own, Ben gently shushed the lost, aching little boy and tucked him safely away. He would always be there, but he would never be hurt, again. Rey's Light shone, filling every empty recess, every cold corner of his heart with the healing balm of all that she was.

When their lips met this time, it was not the pure, sweet touch they'd shared before. He couldn't say which of them had leaned forward first or if they'd moved as one. All he knew was the entrancing feeling of her lips sliding against his as their souls moved together in a breathtaking dance. Every place her skin slid against his sparked with electricity. Ben allowed passion to rise up within him as his Darkness reached out for hers, allowing the warmth of the Light they shared with one another to shift into a sensual heat.

Fully connected to her mind, he felt her confidence grow as the kiss went on. Excitement spiked through his belly and along the base of his spine when her lips grazed the corner of his mouth where it had lifted in that taunting smirk. A brief spark of irritated humor flashed through her mind as she thought of it. Ben responded by nipping at her lower tip, tugging gently before brushing it lightly with his tongue. She drew a surprised breath, before parting her lips slightly in an uncertain, but willing invitation. He took it greedily, but eased back at the startled sound she made in the back of her throat. He reminded himself that she was inexperienced and he gentled his advance to reassure her, rubbing his free hand along her spine in apology.

Ben stroked the inside of her mouth slowly with feather-light caresses of his tongue, sensing her interest in this new form of touch. She relaxed quickly and, never one to sit passively by, Rey began moving her own tongue curiously in return. Her confidence built back up again when he let her sense his pleasure at her interaction. He flicked the tip of his tongue coyly against hers before withdrawing, roaring heat and satisfaction shooting through his veins as she followed after, gently venturing into his own mouth. She was inquisitive and disarmingly charming as she learned her way with patient promptings from him through their Bond. If she bumped her teeth against his or dug her nails into his skin a little too harshly in excitement, Ben didn't mind. He reveled in the fact that she was discovering this with him, giving him not just the heat of her lips and the generous openness of her affections, but her first fumbling experiment of intimacy.

It was intoxicating and he allowed himself to sink into it, into her. Connected in every way, save one, he felt as though the universe had meticulously designed every detail of each of them to match the other. A perfect fit, not just for balance, but for the timeless celebration of two hearts finding that for which they went on beating.

Before long, though, trying to force himself to remember that this was all uncharted territory to her, Ben steered their lips back to tamer kisses. Now, though, there was more abandon to her movements against him and he found his sanity slipping as their mouths came together in long strokes, lips pressing, pulling, sucking.

She wanted more, he could feel it radiating from her, and he wanted to satisfy that desire. Her shining Light that stoked the flame of his own higher tempered his impulses, but passion was the purview of the Dark Side and this was far from innocent. Ben wanted to take, to claim, to conquer. But he also yearned to give, to make her smile again, and watch as his touch brought her to ecstasy.

He was so enraptured by the taste of her that, unable to stop himself, his free hand shifted to lift her into his lap. She offered no resistance, turning slightly to allow them to ease even closer. He felt her heartbeat racing against his own as he pulled her in tight enough that her chest pressed firmly to his, the feel of her breasts insanely alluring. They moved their lips eagerly into the new angle her perch on his thighs afforded them and he felt his control rapidly failing.

Ben could so easily lose himself in this, to yield a sense of individual self for the pleasure of being nothing more than one half of a whole. His lust-hazed mind could think of no greater happiness in that moment. It was dangerous, a road they could all too easily find themselves stumbling down, but he almost didn't care. He wanted her, body and soul.

The Force had brought them together, he knew, bound them to a united destiny. What he hadn't considered until now, though, was that the Bond didn't mean they'd necessarily been intended to care. That they'd come to feel something for one another was not the Force's doing, but their own. Whatever sacred alchemy they'd found between them, even as the Force placed their steps upon a shared path, only reinforced his wonder at what she meant to him. Loving Rey was a choice that no power in the galaxy could dictate, and making it set him free.

His thoughts finally brought Ben's mind back down from the dizzying heights her kiss had lifted him to. Slowly, he gentled their caresses, easing them back from the heady slope of passion they'd been slipping down. She frowned at him when he moved his hand from the smooth curve of her rear, gliding his palm up to cup her face as he pulled away. Staring deep into those hazel depths, Ben found himself smiling, again. The sight captured her attention, as it had before, and he felt her mind marvel at a sight that seemed so out of place on his face and yet so utterly wonderful. Her own lips curved in answer and when she looked back up, he held her gaze as he moved in for one last searing kiss.

He hungered for her like a starving man and he knew she felt the evidence of his desire where she sat in his lap. She shifted slightly and her expression filled with a question when he sucked in an unsteady breath. Running the pad of this thumb along the proud curve of her cheekbone Ben breathed slowly to rein himself in. As much as he wanted her and as sure as he was that she'd give everything to him unreservedly from the earnestly tender emotion pulsing across their Bond, the rough surface of the stone floor, the exhaustion dragging at both of them, and the half-healed injuries that stabbed at his side and leg convinced him to hold back.

Her eyes held disappointment, but she gave him a tired smile that admitted she couldn't help but agree. Unwilling to give up the heady joy of the moment just yet, however, Rey lifted their joined hands and pressed a soul-staggering kiss to his torn knuckles, eyes never leaving his. Had Ben not already been collapsed on the ground, it would have brought him to his knees.

_**Force Rey, you're going to be the death of me.** _

She flinched, looking like she'd been slapped. His heart gave a hard lurch when a tear trembled off the tips of her eyelashes.

"Don't joke about that, Ben," she whispered. It was all far too raw.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, sweetheart," he murmured back brokenly. Familiar self-loathing pooled in his chest, choking him. He wished a time would come when he stopped hurting her.

Seeing his distress and the trail of his thoughts, Rey swallowed hard, then took a shaky breath. She rubbed her fingers over the back of his hand, still clasped in hers, seeking to soothe them both. The sensual feel of her skin against his without a layer of leather between still enthralled him, almost overwhelmingly, and Ben couldn't resist the calming strokes. Then Rey seemed to come to the decision that she wanted to leave the pain and sorrow behind for now, and she gave him a shy smile.

"I like that, by the way," she said softly.

"What?" A little befuddled, his mind managed to slide back to before his blunder, to the smooth glide of their lips against one another and the sweet curl of her tongue. "Oh. I do too."

Ben's smile might have turned a bit cocky, but Rey gave his shoulder a playful swat.

"No," she laughed, following his heated thoughts. "Well, that _too_. But I meant what you called me. You said it before, when you reached out through the Bond. I like it."

He hadn't really thought about it when he'd used the term, guided by nothing more than how he felt and the glimmer of stardust in her eyes.

The combination of her smile and soft words telling him she appreciated the endearment sent his heart rate into lightspeed. Entirely open to one another as they were now, he watched her smile widen at his reaction. He squeezed her hand gently.

"I'm glad," he murmured, swallowing past the dryness in his throat. Ben's own mouth tipped up to return her smile tentatively, unused to moving his facial muscles in that direction, but determined to relearn the mechanics of happiness for her. "Sweetheart."

She leaned up towards him and he found himself leaning down to meet her. The prospect of pressing his mouth to hers again was irresistible. Kissing Rey might well prove addictive, and he didn't feel the least bit concerned by the idea.

Before their lips could meet, though, a throat cleared pointedly behind them.

"Do you suppose you two could wrap it up?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **BTS Ramblings...**  
>  **Rey!** : I confess that I stuck my tongue firmly in my cheek each time I had Ben call out Rey's name. It was ruthlessly meme'd in the films, though it was Finn who was repeating it over and over. It's only happened twice, or so, but if you've read it with a hint of amusement, then I am glad. Like the snark I let myself unleash on Ben's blaster and other such details from the movie, this was just a fun little tribute to one of the silly bits and pieces that make Star Wars endearing.
> 
>  **I Set It On Fire** : The first time I saw TROS in the theater, I laughed out loud when the film got to the part where Rey burns Kylo's TIE Whisper. All I could think of was the young woman who gets so frustrated with her "it's complicated" boyfriend that she goes out and wrecks his prized, souped-up ride. The dude-bros sitting next to me shot some annoyed looks my way, but oh well. When I later read the _Visual Dictionary_ and saw the bit about how the Supreme Leader had highly modified prototypes of new ships that were designed for him, personally, I had myself another little giggle. Way to go, Rey!
> 
>  **Kissing Lessons** : Yeah, one kiss just wasn't enough. If Ben stuck around you know they'd have been lip-locked for a good bit, hard stone floor or no. If I was going to write a spicy make-out session for them, though, I wanted to get it right. I wanted to make it hot, but given their physical discomforts I let Ben keep things PG-13. Ben will be bringing up the subject of his level of amorous experience in the next chapter, so I won't say much about it, here. As for Rey, though, I'd imagined that growing up on Jakku, fending for herself and often fighting for her life, there'd have been little opportunity or inclination for intimacy. And once she'd joined the Resistance, with the whirlwind of emotional connection and turmoil involving Ben/Kylo, I doubt that would have changed, at least in terms of inclination. I've read some great fics where Rey is, in fact, experienced and absolutely loved them. For this, though, I stuck with my initial read on her background. It wasn't about making her "pure" or anything like that, just my own deductions. Plus, it allowed me the fun of giving them a kiss that was one part romance, one part discovery. Rey's a quick learner and, happily enough, Ben seems to be a pretty good teacher … balance, indeed!


	3. And We Will Live Forever

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew! Well, hello again. I apologize that it took me a hot minute to come back to wrap this story up after side-tracking to get my other story, _[As Stars in Our Souls,](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24542773/chapters/59262064)_ up and running. But here we are! Palpatine is defeated and our favorite couple has had a chance to savor their victory with a little make-out sesh. Who interrupted them so rudely, though…?
> 
>  **TRIGGER WARNING:** I want to let everyone know that there is a brief description of a panic attack in this chapter. Rey helps Ben out of it and is there to support him as he recovers, but it's there all the same.
> 
> Much love! ♥

"Let them have their moment, Luke."

"It's getting a bit cloying, don't you think?"

"You're just jealous. You should've taken Mara up on her offer when you had the chance."

"How did you _—_ That's none of your business!"

"So, the great Master Skywalker has _never_ strayed from the path of purity before?"

There was another gruff throat-clearing, this time sounding distinctly more uncomfortable.

"Got you there, he has."

Looking up from where they were cradled against each other on the ground, Ben and Rey stared in shock at three softly-glowing figures. Luke was instantly recognizable, though older than he remembered, heavier and more grizzled. A young man, clad in Jedi robes, lounged on the rough-cut steps of the dais, smirking up at the scowling old hermit. The third was short _—_ very short _—_ and leaned on a gnarled wooden stick he used as a cane, regarding the two humans with amusement. Yoda, too, was immediately recognizable, if for no other reason than that the green creature with the pointy ears couldn't possibly be anyone else.

"Learned to put thought before speech, you never did, young Skywalker."

"Which one of us, Master?" the younger man quipped, shooting the diminutive Jedi a wink. "Ow!"

A small rock had lifted into the air with a surge of the Force and been chucked at the back of the joker's head.

"Hmm. Neither one, it would seem," the green menace of every rule-bending Padawan's nightmares mused gleefully.

Ben's breath caught. The man left wincing and rubbing the back of his skull was a Skywalker, but not one he recognized. Then, with the abruptness of a Force-push, realization dawned and he tensed. Rey looked at him with a frown of concern, but then caught onto the conclusion he'd arrived at and turned back to stare with wide eyes at the first of his star-crossed line.

_Anakin Skywalker._

Ben's face was frozen, eyes nailed to his grandfather's young, boyish face. He heard a faint hum from the kyber crystal embedded in the core of the lightsaber at Rey's belt, almost as if in confirmation and recognition, both. This man was the inspiration of so many of his own childhood dreams. He'd grown up fascinated by stories of the Clone Wars and the Jedi Knight who'd gone by the name of Skywalker. Ben had become an avid student of his forebear's history, tracking down every record of the hero's extraordinary deeds and chirping endlessly up at his mother and father about the ancestor he'd come to worship. They'd looked down at him with concern, tip-toeing around the revelation they so desperately wanted to conceal. This was the man he so admired. The great warrior and leader, who had fallen and become the very personification of evil.

For the boy carrying a solid vein of Darkness through his soul, it was his family's greatest fear that Ben would discover the rest of his grandfather's story.

When the layers of half-facts and outright lies had been torn away in a career-ending defeat for his mother by one of her political rivals, he'd been shown so much more than just the truth of the other half of Anakin's soul. Ben had learned who and what his parents really were. They'd woven a convenient fiction and forced him to be a party to the deception by keeping him in ignorance. Innocent of the lie, but complicit by association.

It had severed the last strands of faith Ben had in his family. Standing there, watching the Holonet report as the other Padawans stared at him with a mixture of fear and disgust, Ben had felt his heart break. Luke had tried to soften the blow, explain that they'd done it to protect him, but it was far too late. The only solace he found was in the reassuring promises of the voice in his head. He'd felt himself waver over the abyss that always lurked beneath his feet, waiting for him to give up on resisting its pull.

Not long after that, Ben had woken in the middle of the night to find his uncle's lightsaber poised above his head and he'd known it was all over. It was his family's final act of judgment of the unworthy heir they'd rejected. After watching the temple go up in flames, Ben had fled to Snoke and pledged himself to the Dark Side, welcoming the shadow's embrace.

If Ben Solo's attempts to emulate Anakin Skywalker were doomed to failure, he'd told himself, then perhaps Kylo Ren could follow in the footsteps of Darth Vader and achieve some measure of value.

"Ben, no," Rey urged him quietly, following his thoughts and distressed by the depression she was sensing from him. Lost in the tragedy of his childhood, however, he could only stare at the man who'd inspired his efforts to cling to the Light and then fueled his descent towards the Dark.

Anakin's head turned at the sound of Rey's voice and he met his grandson's gaze. He sobered immediately and stood up from the step he'd been reclining on, regarding the couple seated on the floor, arms wrapped around one another as though it would help hold them together.

"Ben, Rey," Luke said, nodding at them in greeting and then indicating the tall form of his father. "This is _—_ "

"I know who he is," Ben bit out, anger suddenly flaring up inside him. Rey gasped at the scorching heat of it and he fought to tamp it back down. She offered him a stream of Light to help and he grasped onto it like a lifeline. It encouraged the spark of Light within him to rise and temper the roiling Darkness. He hugged her close, clinging to the steadiness she gave him with the simple power of her presence.

 ** _It's okay. Ben. It's going to be okay_** , she sent across to his mind.

 ** _All this time and he shows up NOW_** , Ben seethed, unable to conceal the raw pain tearing away at him.

 _I've been every voice…you've ever heard…inside your head_. Palpatine's taunt had struck deep, but the blow did not land with such catastrophic turmoil as this one did. Seeing his grandfather appear before him now that it was all over, now that he had Rey to anchor him and didn't need the guiding wisdom of the first Skywalker he'd so longed for as Darkness had risen to claim him. What kind of twisted joke was this?

Catching his breath and drawing on Rey's calm to get a handle on his emotions, Ben looked back towards the man whose face bore a hauntingly familiar scar across his right eye. He fixed the Force spirit with a forbidding stare, waiting.

Anakin winced at the look on his grandson's face, shoulders dropping as he let out a heavy breath. To his credit, though, he held that stare, accepting the accusation in it.

"I wish we could have met years ago, Ben," his grandfather said. "And I don't begrudge you your anger, but I will ask that you allow me to explain."

"You all have some explaining to do, I think," Rey threw at all three Force spirits, her voice sharp. Ben tried to rein himself in further, but realized that his temper wasn't influencing her outburst. This fury was all hers. It passed quickly, though, her mind easing towards inner calm again at the consternation in Luke's face and the guilty way Anakin's eyes shifted towards her and then away. Yoda was seemingly unmoved by Rey's rebuke, but didn't make any effort to gainsay her. She'd made her point.

It helped Ben to collect himself, allowing her satisfaction with the reaction she'd gotten to soothe him. He sent a grateful pulse along the Bond before unfolding his arms and nudging her to rise. She climbed out of his lap and then bent down to help him get to his feet so he could face whatever reckoning they were in for. He straightened as much as he could while shifting his weight off his damaged leg, but then Rey slipped in under his arm and tugged lightly so he'd lean on her a little. After casting her a warm look, Ben then turned his eyes back to his grandfather.

Anakin looked at the pair of them, a small smile teasing his lips. He sobered under Ben's intensity, though, and raised his head to meet it.

"I've watched over you your entire life, Ben, even before you were born" he began, tucking his hands into the generous sleeves of his robe. "I'd sensed Palpatine's interest once the first stirrings of your lifeforce could be felt when Leia became pregnant with you. I knew he'd seek to use you, to hurt you in some way. And he did. Palpatine sank his claws into your mind almost from the moment he became aware of you. I tried to shield your developing consciousness and block his attempt to latch on," Anakin's brow furrowed in defeat, "but I couldn't."

"Why not?" Ben managed to ask, throat tight. He hung on every word coming from his grandfather, heart desperate for the answer to his years of torment.

"Because Palpatine had predicted I would try to stop him and prepared accordingly," his grandfather's voice hardened with frustration. "He erected a barrier of Dark energy that locked the passage we Jedi who have become one with the Force use to enter and manifest in this realm of reality."

"How is that even possible?" Rey exclaimed, eyes wide. Ben felt equally shocked by the monumental power such an undertaking would demand.

"Unknown are many of the Dark rituals of the Sith," Yoda answered, joining the conversation. "Through sacrifice, perhaps. Many followers, Sidious had here. Fuel for such evil, _death_ is."

A chill swept along Ben's skin at the thought of how many of the Sith loyalists would have had to be offered up to create and maintain such a barrier for three decades. Rey shivered and pressed in closer to him.

"Unclean, this place will ever be," the Grand Master mused, almost as if to himself, but then turned to speak directly to Rey. "Corruption. Sense it, do you?"

Ben's mind reached out alongside Rey's, feeling the air around them. The heavy fog that enhanced the glow from the massive pit beyond the shattered throne pressed in on them, but there was a taint within it that seemed to stir of its own accord. Sentient. And steeped in hatred.

The Force itself here was tainted. Poisonous. It reached out towards the concentration of Light within Rey with murderous intent.

Ben looked down at Rey, feeling himself start to panic. He felt the assault, too, but it didn't seem particularly determined. His inner Darkness deterred it, actually protecting the core of Light he held. No, he wasn't in any immediate danger, he sensed, but his mind screamed at the feeling of nausea he could sense spreading in Rey. She'd paled with the realization that the very planet her grandfather had ruled over was trying to kill her.

Luke stepped forward, extending a calming hand.

"Be easy, Rey," her former master sought to reassure her. "Focus. You know the danger, now. Guard yourself and shield your mind from it."

Listening to his words with desperation, Rey nodded jerkily. She closed her eyes and sought to center herself, but she was too frantic. Seeing her struggle, Ben wrenched his own mind under control with sheer force of will. Intent on protecting Rey, he tightened his arm around her and sent a steadying touch along the Bond. Her mind quieted and she was able to get a grip on what she'd been told to do. With Ben bolstering her, Rey was able to erect a shield that cut off the toxic onslaught. Releasing a shuddering breath, she opened her eyes and looked to Luke for confirmation.

"Well done," he said with a smile. "It won't block it entirely, but you'll be safe long enough to get out of this place."

Rey smiled at him, but then something occurred to her. Ben raised a brow, confused by the memory that came to her mind and he looked the glowing form of his uncle up and down.

"Master Skywalker, you came to me on Ahch-To when I _—_ ," she peeked up at Ben out of the corner of her eye. "When I returned."

 ** _Uh-huh, and needed a new ship_** , he thought at her, earning himself an eye roll.

"True enough," his uncle responded, hooking his thumbs into his belt. "Make no mistake, I was as stuck as my father after I became one with the Force. Your return to Ahch-To created an opportunity, though. Like Exegol, the planet is a nexus of powerful Force energy. Unlike this one, however, the energy is predominantly of the Light."

"But the Dark Cave…" Rey mentioned, trailing off.

"Powerful Light and powerful Dark, just as I once said," he acknowledged. "But the world was steeped in the Light over the course of many hundreds of years when early practitioners of the Force _—_ who eventually formed the Jedi Order, incidentally _—_ sought to counterbalance that Darkness by infusing the atmosphere itself with its antithesis."

He shrugged, indicating there was more to it, but that was the basis of it all.

"That energy, aligned to the Light, created a weakness in Palpatine's barrier," Luke continued in a tone Ben remembered from his days as a Padawan. "It was just enough that I could force my way through, as Yoda had done to advise me after you dashed off to win Ben Solo back from Snoke's clutches."

Ben frowned at that, trying to hold onto his temper. Few were able draw it out of him so effortlessly as Luke, though.

Rey was nodding, lost in thought. He could read the way she was sorting through what his uncle had said, working it out in her head and drawing her own conclusions. It lightened his mood, allowing him to unclench his jaw.

He was tensing again, though, when he saw the color drain suddenly from Rey's face. A wave of nausea rolled through her and she swallowed hard to fight it back down.

"Let's go," Ben said, not willing to risk Rey's life, no matter his uncle's reassurances.

"Wait, Ben," Anakin said, holding up a hand to keep him from rushing Rey out of the chamber without delay. Ben scowled at him in irritation.

"Lessened, the threat now is," Yoda said. "Something important to relay, we have."

"'Lessened' isn't good enough," Ben bit out, losing his patience. "Rey can't stay here."

"Ben, stop," she spoke up, tugging at his arm until he looked at her. "I'm fine. The shield is keeping the corruption out and I'm already feeling better."

 ** _And if they say it's important, then we need to listen_** , she added silently.

He reached for the edges of her mind, anxiously feeling along the barrier of her shield and finding it not just stable, but formidable. A swell of pride filled his chest. He really shouldn't be surprised by her strength anymore. Rey rewarded him with a smile for that.

"Fine," Ben said aloud, turning to look back at the trio of ghosts who'd watched the silent exchange with interest. He eyed them resentfully. "What more do you need to tell us before you all disappear back into the Force forever?"

"Meet again, we will," Yoda corrected him.

"Will we?" he asked skeptically, unable to completely let go of those years of isolation.

"Yes. Palpatine's defeat has dismantled the barrier. We’re free now. And Ben," Anakin said, his expression softening. "No matter the reason for our silence, we have _always_ been with you."

"And we always will be," Luke murmured. Ben's eyes shot to his uncle, surprised to hear that sentiment from him. He felt Rey's hand press into the small of his back tenderly and he found it difficult to swallow.

Ben could feel that Rey was moved by the sentiments both men shared. To her, it was worth the discomfort for him to hear that his family truly did care. But he saw that her free hand was shaking. She was feeling the taint pressing in, shield or no, and he shared her desire to leave Exegol behind.

"We should comm Finn and Poe," she said, following his thoughts. Anakin perked up at that and he started to say something, but Rey was too distracted to notice. Looking up at Ben, she shrugged apologetically. "I won't mention you when I hail them and once they show I'll get them to take us somewhere safe that we can stay until we get you patched up."

Ben's jaw tightened in reluctance. They didn't exactly have options, here, given that _Red Five_ would only seat one and the deathtrap he'd flown in on was fit only for the scrapheap. Regardless, he didn't want to rely on the Resistance. He didn't think they'd be all that thrilled to welcome the Supreme Leader of the First Order with open arms.

 ** _FORMER Supreme Leader_** , she silently insisted, but her expression was soft.

"I'm sorry," she murmured aloud, turning to face him and taking Ben's other hand in hers, pressing in so her face was directly below his. "I know you don't trust them, but they're my friends and they'll help us."

"Us?" he responded drily, squeezing her fingers gently. "They'll help _you_."

"There's no difference, not anymore," Rey smiled a little, her beautiful eyes offering reassurance and so much more. Ben felt her mind slide contentedly against his, warmth flowing into him, and he lowered his brow to rest it against hers.

"You two aren't going to get very far if you're going to stop for a cuddle every other minute," Luke's acerbic comment grated on Ben's nerves, but Rey's closeness helped him control the instinct to lash out.

"You really have no romance in that dried up old soul of yours, do you? Are we sure you're my son?" Anakin quipped, shaking his head as mischief sparked almost palpably in the air around him. "No wonder Mara _—_ "

"You can just stop with that, right now," Luke interrupted sharply, shooting his father a grumpy look. "Mara is _not_ up for discussion."

"Oh, of course. My apologies," Anakin humbly offered, but with a twinkle in his eyes that left little doubt the topic would resurface soon enough. Luke groaned, rolling his eyes.

"Easy, facing the truth never is," Yoda contributed, ears perking up as he regarded his former apprentice. He was clearly enjoying himself.

"That's not exactly helpful, Master," Luke ground out in frustration.

"Hmm. Tragic, that is," crowed the ancient Master, cackling in amusement.

 ** _Who's Mara?_** Rey silently questioned, ignoring the schoolyard ragging the wise masters of the Force had descended into.

 ** _Proof that Luke Skywalker wasn't the saint everyone believes he was_** , Ben answered. She looked up at him, absorbing the juicy scandal his mind shared and biting her lip to keep herself from laughing aloud. He enjoyed sharing in her mirth at his uncle's expense, but though Luke couldn't hear what passed between them, he certainly caught the poorly concealed merriment on Rey's face. And the completely open mockery on Ben's.

Glaring at them both, Luke propped his fists on his hips and gave his best _I-Am-Jedi-Master-Skywalker-And-Don't-You-Forget-It-You-Foolish-Apprentice_ look. It quelled Rey somewhat, but didn't have much of an effect on his nephew's smirk. Fed up, Luke threw his hands in the air and turned away with an offended huff.

"They're right," Rey hurried to say, eyeing the irate set of Luke's translucent shoulders. "We need to get going. This corrupted energy is starting to give me a headache."

Ben's forehead creased in concern. If Rey was admitting to the strain, then it was getting bad.

"Before you go," Anakin said, stepping up to them and looking to his grandson. "Ben and I need to talk."

 _Yes, we do,_ Ben thought, but hesitated, torn.

"Sorry about this, Rey," Anakin said, throwing her a wink. "I know the atmosphere is weighing on you, but this is important."

"I understand," she replied, and she truly did. She took a deep breath and reinforced her mental shield.

 ** _Sure you can hold out? We can go now if we need to_** , Ben assured Rey across the Bond, searching her eyes with concern. He didn't want her to try and bear up under the toxicity of Exegol's tainted Force energy if it was going to take too much from her.

 ** _I'm fine. I mean it, I'll be okay_** , Rey assured him with a determined glance.

Ben pressed a light kiss to her temple before moving to lead his grandfather away from the others. She stopped him before he took a step, however.

"No, Ben. Stay," Rey admonished, pushing him down to sit on the step of the dais where his grandfather had been reclining earlier. "We'll give you some privacy."

**_If you're not going to let me heal your leg, then at least stay off it as much as you can until we get you to a medical droid._ **

She couldn't seem to help leaning down to peck him on the cheek before stepping away. Now that their feelings were out in the open, it seemed like they were going to make up for every minute he'd wasted in the past year that had kept them apart. Ben certainly wasn't going to complain and he didn't think she would, either.

Rey cocked her head at the glowing apparitions of Luke and Yoda as she slowly walked off towards the pit, limping slightly. Ben narrowed his eyes at that, suspecting she was siphoning off some of his pain again, despite her own hurts. He decided he was too tired to fight her over it, though.

 _Not that it would do much good, anyway_ , he thought.

**_A smart man, after all. Well done, you._ **

Smirking at her cheek, Ben's eyes wandered downwards in appreciation of her receding form for once, making certain she could feel his regard through the Bond. Bashful humor trickled back to him. He couldn’t help nudging her mind with amusement as she drew out of earshot, Force spirits in-tow.

**_You do realize those are two Grand Master Jedi you're ordering around, don't you, young apprentice?_ **

**_Neither of them managed to actually defeat Palpatine, now did they? What's so 'grand' about them?_ **

A tired chuckle came out of him at her blatant disrespect for the two legends, the stories of whom they'd both been raised on. Clearly, Rey was less than impressed with Luke and Yoda after the two of them had wound up having to clean up the mess the whole Skywalker bloodline had left them with.

"She's something else, huh?"

Ben turned to look at Anakin, who was settling beside him on the stone step.

"Yeah, she is," he responded, a little lost as to what to say now that he and his grandfather were finally alone.

"I like her. Feisty, and doesn't let anyone stand in her way. She reminds me of _—_ ," Anakin broke off, a choked breath seeming to surprise him. He cleared his throat and looked down at his hands. "She reminds me of Padmé."

The grief in Anakin's voice hit Ben harder than he would have expected it to. Having come so close to losing Rey, though, he thought he understood that sense of heartbreak to a degree. He knew little about his grandfather's secret marriage, but his mother had always spoken Padmé's name with a certain reverence that had stayed with him. Looking at the man who'd risked his place within the Jedi Order to be with the woman he'd loved, Ben felt like he truly understood Anakin Skywalker for the first time.

Perhaps he hadn't ever really tried, having only looked to the legend, the incredible power. Not the human heart behind it.

The same injustice he'd once thought his family had perpetrated against him.

Ben's shoulders sagged a little. They'd all made such a mess of it, the Skywalkers. They were famous for their passions and their determination, but those same virtues could so easily prove to be vices when taken to the extreme.

_And I can't name a single one of us who was ever good at moderation._

He felt Rey catch the errant thought and send a subtle inquiry, not wanting to intrude. Ben reassured her, passing along a soft surge of warmth, promising he'd tell her later. She quietly withdrew, though as she did he picked up on her tension. The planet's corruption really was dragging on her, more than she'd admit. As much as he had to say to his grandfather, he needed to get Rey out of this place.

"So, what did you want to say to me?" he asked, a little gruffly.

Ben's voice brought Anakin back from his inner wanderings and he turned to give his grandson a sad smile before shaking himself a bit. The spark in his eye rekindled, though that sorrow could never be far away.

"To congratulate you," Anakin said, smiling genuinely, now. "You did what none of the rest of us could, you and Rey. A Skywalker finally put an end to the greatest evil of not just your own generation, but mine and so many others in between."

Ben looked away, a little embarrassed. He wasn't used to praise and to have it come from the man he'd idolized after one fashion or another throughout his entire life, he found it a lot to take in.

"I also want to thank you," his grandfather continued, waiting until Ben met his eyes again. "Sheev Palpatine used me. He manipulated my fears for my wife and children until I became the very threat to them I dreaded."

Anakin took a deep breath before continuing on in a quieter, but earnest tone.

"And I need to tell you that I'm sorry," the first Skywalker said. "You should never have inherited this burden, Palpatine's hatred and evil. He drove me to destroy everything I loved and he almost did it to you, too. Ben, I'm so sorry."

Ben was speechless. Anakin looked back at him, waiting. He swallowed with difficulty, mind racing to figure out what to say. Something told him that whatever response he gave would play a part in determining the course of his future after this.

Meeting those stormy blue eyes, he considered. The failure of Anakin to fully destroy the Emperor, as the Chosen One had supposedly been meant to, had resulted in a lifetime of abuse and torment for Ben. And for what? So Palpatine could get back at his family for thwarting his ambitions. On the surface, the legacy of the Skywalkers meant power beyond imagining, but it came at a soul-crushing price. It had almost broken him. If it hadn't been for Rey, he believed it would have.

He turned his head subtly to look over at her, quietly talking to the two Grand Masters. Yoda said something that made Luke scowl and he spotted the smile she fought to hide. She was so full of Light, his Rey. She'd forgiven him, in the end, even after he'd tortured and belittled her, hurt her friends, and then spent a year hunting her across the galaxy. It astounded him and he would probably always question whether she'd been right to do it. Ultimately, though, the choice had been hers and he could only thank her for giving him another chance. Her compassion was the heart of all she was and the foundation of her extraordinary strength.

Anakin had no more chances to be given, now. Forgiveness wouldn't restore his great love or take away the decades of servitude built on cruel lies. But that didn't mean it didn't matter.

Ben turned away from his contemplation of the woman who'd shown him the real meaning of compassion and back to the fallen Jedi Knight who'd done what he could when it mattered most. No words were necessary. Ben let his forgiveness show in his eyes and Anakin saw it. His grandfather's smile wobbled a bit, but he held his composure valiantly.

"Thank you, my grandson," Anakin whispered.

Around them, the Force stirred and the dead weight of the air seemed to suddenly be filled with bright, vibrant energy that pushed back the Darkness for a few moments. The softly-burning core of Light within Ben rose, filling his mind with a heartbreaking sense of recognition and acceptance. He almost thought he could feel warm arms wrap around him and fingers trail lovingly through his hair before they faded away.

It didn't last and the corruption of Exegol seeped back in, but the flame abided deep inside him. Though the Dark Side would always have a claim on him, the Light had chosen to reassert its place in his soul. Ben had opened himself to it and now he'd been accepted in return.

Ben was shocked, completely taken aback by the Force's reaction. His eyes shot to Rey, who was looking at him in awe. Slowly, a trembling smile spread across her face and she mouthed something to him that brought a tear sliding down his cheek.

"Well, there you go," Anakin murmured, surprising Ben and bringing his attention back to his grandfather.

"But I came back for Rey," Ben rasped, completely stunned by the Light's unexpected benediction. He wasn't claiming any special deed. He was just surprised that if the Light was to reaccept him for anything, that his efforts to save Rey were deemed less significant than the simple gesture he'd shown his grandfather. Anakin smiled at his confusion.

"Love is selfish, Ben," he said. "What you have together is true and untainted, but there's passion and possessiveness in acting to defend that which you're unwilling to lose. The Force is, by nature, rather black and white about these things, I'm afraid."

Ben nodded, all too familiar with reaching for the mark, but failing to fully measure up. In all likelihood, the only way his defense of Rey would have been acceptable was if he'd died for her. Ironic, considering it was a trade he'd been considering only hours ago, but still.

_The Force is a bastard._

"I'm proud of you," Anakin's words kept Ben from stewing in his resentment, a habit he'd be unlikely to kick easily. "It's not all about the great Skywalker bloodline and legacies and prophecies. We're a family, even if half of us have never actually been introduced. But that's the thing, Ben. Regardless of circumstance, _you_ will always matter."

Ben stared, feeling the words sink in and allowing their meaning to finally feel real. It had always been the truth, his mother had made sure he knew that, but now it really hit him. He could only offer a jerky nod in reply.

"Now, Ben _—_ ," his grandfather broke off, unhappiness lining his youthful face and emphasizing the scar across his eye. Anakin pulled himself up straight, a determined set to his shoulders and he met Ben's eyes as he continued.

"Ben, there's something else. I wish we could leave it were it is for now, let you and Rey get somewhere safe to recover and just be together without responsibility weighing on you. Too many of this family's tragedies were caused by refusing to face the truth when it mattered most, though."

Ben felt his spine straighten at the graveness in Anakin's tone. Of course he hadn't expected things to be all bright and beautiful after defeating Palpatine, if they'd survived at all. But yeah, it would've been nice to have a chance to catch their breath before the galaxy came crashing down on them.

"Tell me," he said, resigned. He got a commiserating smile in return.

"It doesn't all end just because Palpatine is gone," Anakin said, resting his forearms on his knees and rubbing a finger along the scar over his eye. "The Dark Side will always seek dominance over the Light, and the Light will strive to check and contain the Darkness. There is no winner in all this, just those of us who try to keep the scales leveled as well as we can."

"But wasn't it the prophecy of the Chosen One to triumph over the Sith and balance the Force?" Ben asked, an edge of mockery coloring his tone. He had his own rather irreverent thoughts about that particular footnote in his family's history, but part of him was truly curious to hear how his grandfather would respond.

"Well, the Sith have been defeated, at least the only one remaining of any notable power or influence," Anakin sighed, but then he fixed Ben with a firm look. "But then, the prophecy wasn't about the Sith and the Jedi, no matter what the Council or anyone else believed. It _just_ stated that balance would be restored."

"That's rather vague," Ben said with a frown. He'd never heard the prophecy itself. In fact, he didn't think even his mother or Uncle Luke had known the actual wording of it. They'd just always recounted that 'the Chosen One had fulfilled the prophecy when the Emperor was destroyed, restoring the balance.' Textbook history.

Hearing the reality was a little…disappointing.

"It is, isn't it? Leaves _lots_ of room for interpretation…or misinterpretation," his grandfather snorted as he raised a brow. "I did fulfill the prophecy. My part of it. But Ben, you and Rey are continuing to fulfill it right now."

Ben's lips parted in confusion and Anakin leaned further towards him.

"Balance within the Force isn't always about the grand, galactic-scale feats like taking down a Sith, though Master Windu may disagree with me. Nothing new," Anakin shrugged, unbothered. "Sometimes, it's subtler things that mean just as much, if not more, sending out ripples of influence which expand until they're felt everywhere."

"The Dyad," Ben deduced. "Rey and I each know both sides of the Force, but while she lives in the Light, my soul still belongs to the Dark Side."

"Partly, at any rate" Anakin agreed, but then smiled proudly. " I don't think any of us can deny that you still have Light within you after tonight, however."

"Even so, I've lived within the Dark for years, welcomed it and pledged my fealty to it in blood," he worked his lips in pain at the reminder of his greatest sin, the image of a red blade piercing his father's heart impossible to dislodge from his mind. Rey saw it, too, and she started towards him in concern. He shook his head at her, though, and she turned unhappily back to Luke and Yoda.

"I chose it," he finished softly.

"Yes," his grandfather said. "And it has made you into the perfect counterpart to Rey and all that Light of hers."

" _Perfect_ ," Ben scoffed. "There was never anyone so damn imperfect."

"Only from a certain point of view, Ben," Anakin said kindly. "But whatever you are, and however you, I, or anyone else looks at it, you are exactly what Rey needs."

Ben held onto that. He gripped onto the hope it offered, desperate not to lose it.

"So, does this all mean it's still not over?" he asked, voice strained. "Palpatine will rise yet again or some other Sith Lord will come along for us to kill?"

"Not Palpatine. You and Rey ended him forever, have no doubt on that score. But whether it's a Sith, a Dathomirian Nightsister, a pack of rogue Force users like your Knights of Ren, or something else, yes, other threats _will_ rise to upset the balance," Anakin responded, a look of haunted sympathy shadowing his gaze as he met his grandson's eyes, knowing well the weight of this burden. "That's the nature of the Force. It isn't a sedentary thing and will always require those it touches to act on its behalf, but it doesn’t always have to require death and sacrifice."

Really? That's all it had asked of him so far. Both he and Rey had almost died to end the threat of her grandfather and now they were being condemned to face it all, again. He hadn't really stopped to imagine what it would be like for he and Rey. Facing Palpatine and saving her had consumed him. But now that there was a chance to dream and plan, the Force and some worthless prophecy was doing it all for them.

"Why us?" Ben asked, tears catching in his throat and breath coming harshly. "Why does it _have_ to be us?"

His grandfather regarded him with heartache.

"Because there's no one else," Anakin said sadly.

Ben let out a humorless huff of laughter. So, this was to be the life he and Rey would be bound to, the Dyad eternally fighting to ensure one side didn't gain supremacy. Did that mean they'd have to fight each other if one became too strong, as well?

_Fuck that!_

He swallowed, feeling his chest tighten with tension. His mind was in chaos.

Rey reached for him, again. He felt the pulse of comfort she sent to him in response to his agitation, a question behind it. Suddenly, Ben desperately needed to feel her at his side. Breathing fast with need, he reached out and tugged, a bit too harshly. Her concern turned into alarm, which threw him beyond any semblance of control. His breathing was starting to run ragged and a buzzing that was felt more than heard filled his head.

Blackness was creeping around the edges of his vision and the buzzing was almost deafening as bile rose in his throat, washing acid across his tongue. Ben felt like he was going to pass out. His breathing sped until he was hyperventilating, draining his brain of much-needed oxygen. Heart pounding, he wavered where he sat.

Then there was warmth enfolding him, holding onto his frozen limbs with gentle strength. Tendrils of Light reached into his mind, caressing the fear away with soft strokes.

With painful slowness, Ben's breathing began to even out, coming less quickly. He felt horribly dizzy and so exhausted that he just couldn't hold himself up any longer. Collapsed on the stone step, he finally started to recognize his surroundings, again. The Light still moved through him, but it was the feel of the slight, but strong arms around his body that steadied him, at last.

He dragged his eyelids up and she was there, his Rey. Power radiating from her, she bent over him to clasp his shoulders. There were new tear tracks drawn through the dirt on her face and the sight of them increased the weight continuing to press down on him. Sensing it, she pushed harder with the Force, fighting to give him everything she could. She was still drawing on a depleted well, however, and when Ben felt how her vision was greying out he reached up to pull her down into his lap. He rested his forehead on hers, staying there a beat before his head slid forward to land on her shoulder.

**_I'm fine. You can stop._ **

She didn't, though, too frightened of the depths of desolation he'd fallen to, wanting to lift him out of it and protect his mind from the shadows that lurked there.

**_Rey. Sweetheart, it's okay. You need to stop, NOW._ **

Ben pushed against her mind with his, urging her to relent. Finally, she did. She was gasping a little and he could sense a massive headache blooming that sent sharp stabs of pain into his own head. With no other resource he could call upon at this point to help her, he simply raised his hand to rub soft circles between her shoulder blades.

**_Wasn't I the one supposed be making you feel better, here?_ **

Her mental voice sounded as weak as they both felt, but hearing it brought a small smile to Ben's lips, the fear that she'd gone too far allayed.

**_You did. You are. Thank you…thank you for..._ **

Tears were slipping down his face, now. The absurdity of the steep swings from elation to despair they were endlessly being tossed between almost made him laugh. Or scream. Rey's arms tightened gently, holding him steady even as her mind prompted his, keeping him in the moment.

**_For what?_ **

**_For being mine._ **

She hummed softly against his ear and he didn't have to see her face to feel the smile that grew there. Her head shifted a little and her lips pressed into his sweat-soaked hair.

**_Say it again, Ben._ **

**_Thank you for being mine,_** he repeated without hesitation. He'd thank her, the Force, and the galaxy every day he was allowed to be part of her life.

**_No. Not that._ **

_Ahh._ He did chuckle, then.

**_Sweetheart._ **

She sighed happily, squeezing his shoulders.

They sat collapsed against one another, neither sure who was holding who up. After a few minutes, Rey raised her head and ran her fingers through his hair, both of them taking comfort from the physical touch. She kissed his temple again, mind gently nudging him. She was giving Ben the time he needed, but reminding him they weren't alone. Anxiety pooled in his stomach again, but Rey told him to just focus on breathing.

**_I've got you, Ben. I'm here and neither of us will ever be alone, again. I believe that._ **

Her words were like a balm, easing an aching wound. Ben nodded into her shoulder and kissed it firmly before lifting his head. Bright sparks flared across his vision, but he squeezed his eyes shut until the lightheaded spell passed. He felt her breath on his cheek and turned towards it, and as he opened his eyes again she was the first thing he saw.

_Force, let her be the first thing I see every time I open my eyes._

Her eyes glowed, hearing the thought that he didn't even try to hide away. Not caring that his grandfather stood only a few paces away while Luke and the ancient troll continued to kick their heels over by the pit where Rey had left them, Ben caught her lips in a kiss. The entire universe could wait, as far as he was concerned.

By whatever standard the Force chose to judge him, Ben didn't care if it was selfish to love this woman. She was everything to him and he would sacrifice anything to be with her. Fortunately, the Light seemed content enough with him and the abyss of the Dark Side didn't rise up to swallow him in eternal exile, for this at least.

_Yeah, the Force is definitely a bastard._

Rey snickered into the kiss, hearing the surly thought. It tickled his lips as he rubbed them over hers happily. As unfair and messed up as everything was, she made it better.

"You have the strength for this, Ben," Anakin said, breaking into the tender moment. "Everything you need is right there in front of you."

Ben pulled back to shoot his grandfather a look, noting the encouraging smile. It wasn't necessary.

'Yes, she is."

Rey's eyes returned the sentiment in full, a faint blush coloring her cheekbones.

"With purpose, the Force moves. Always."

They both startled, turning to see that Yoda and Luke had wandered back over to them.

"But not peace," Rey said, having absorbed the details of Ben's conversation with Anakin while they'd held one another. "Is that right?"

"Who gets to decide what is right or fair?" Luke asked her, though his expression wasn't unkind. "We carry the load we're given as long as we have to and as best we can."

"Our own peace, we must find," Yoda agreed, sagely. "From accepting our purpose, it may be gained."

Rey's brow creased at that and Ben felt her consider the Jedi Master's words. He was surprised that she found them wanting, just as he did. Rey was generally more accepting of the inflexibility typical of the Jedi dogma, but in this case he sensed they felt equally dissatisfied.

"Accepting or submitting to?" she challenged.

"Difference to you, is there?" he replied. Both of them knew he was testing her.

"Yes. I'm willing to accept that Ben and I have a responsibility to maintain the balance of the Force, that our Bond was more or less designed for it, but that doesn't mean we have to submit to it all unquestioningly."

Ben felt his chest swell with pride for this amazing woman who took the whole Jedi Order to task while seated in his lap. Tightening his hold on her, he met the short Master's eyes himself.

"Or without condition," he added.

"Hmm," Yoda looked to him with interest. "Always an eye for advantage, the Dark Side has."

"I'm a Dark Sider, so that seems fitting," Ben shot back, not missing a beat.

"Ben!" Luke reprimanded, but was cut short by Anakin's spectral hand on his arm.

There was silence and he felt Rey grow tense. Ben hugged her close for reassurance, not concerned in the slightest. He'd bourn the sadistic teachings and inquisitions of Snoke, endured the cruel mind games and wordplay that were always intended to make the lowly apprentice feel weak and pathetic. The punishments had been…unspeakable. But over time, they had given him the fortitude to bear up under greater scrutiny than the legendary Grand Master was fixing him with, now.

He was stronger than Yoda's judgment, Luke's, Snoke's, all of them.

Ben held Yoda's inscrutable gaze defiantly, refusing to back down. They sat like that for several long seconds, clashing in the silent standoff. Then the little troll started chortling. Luke stared in bewilderment at his former mentor, but Anakin only grinned. Clearly, Ben was not the first Skywalker to have been subjected to that obscure gaze.

"Honest, you are, young Solo," Yoda said approvingly, tapping his stick on the stone floor. "The hard truths, you are unafraid to face."

"I've had to live with them my whole life," he responded, though without heat. Luke looked at him guiltily, painful memories playing behind his blue eyes.

"You have," Yoda allowed, looking between Ben and Rey. "Necessary, that will prove to be. For you both. A hard road to travel, you have."

"That's nothing new to either of us," Rey retorted, using Ben's shoulder to leverage herself up onto her feet. He let her go regretfully, but her mind remained settled close, tucked up against his comfortingly.

"No, it isn't," Luke acknowledged, bowing his head slightly at Rey.

Ben sensed how his uncle respected her, admired her spirit. He agreed, but at the same time he couldn't help a stab of distaste over sharing the same view as Uncle Luke. It was petty and childish, he knew, but he was just too tired to really care right now. His brows lowered in a scowl without thought and it drew Luke's attention. Surprisingly, though, the crusty old Jedi didn't return the glare, but held Ben's gaze calmly.

"Whatever the reasons, your lives have prepared you to face what lies ahead," his uncle said, guilt still weighing on him, but a touch of pride threading through his voice.

The resentment faded and Ben looked into Luke's eyes for a long minute as that sense of significance filled him, again. This man had helped raise him, spent years teaching him, taking him along on journeys to distant worlds in search of lost history. In many ways, Luke had been a father to Ben when Han had withdrawn, too afraid to understand the shadows his son lived in. His uncle had been afraid of him, too, but at least he'd taken him in without hesitation and sought to help. For all that he'd hated being sent away and the feeling of rejection, he'd been grateful to Luke. He'd admired him for the great Jedi Master he was.

He'd loved him.

_The hum of plasma and the glow of the green blade waking him. Looking up to see his uncle's face twisted into a grim mask of judgment and condemnation. The nightmare made reality._

Ben shook his head, trying to shove away the memory of that night. Rey leaned into his side, curling an arm around his shoulders, and he pressed back into her. His eyes never left his uncle's and a world of meaning passed between them. Unlike Anakin's failure to destroy Palpatine, though, Ben couldn't forgive Luke's own trespass.

Luke returned his gaze and while he saw the hurt, there was understanding as well. Perhaps Ben would be able to let it go with time, but it wasn't going to be today. Or anytime soon. If that in any way negated the Light's approval for the absolution he'd granted Anakin, rendered him unworthy again, then so be it. He wasn't about to offer something that wasn't in his heart to give.

"Shadows there must be for us to know, to appreciate the Light," Yoda interceded, breaking the heavy silence. "Yes. Inside ourselves, too."

Luke sighed, but nodded. Ben knew he'd struggled with the Darkness in himself, fearful after having to face it and nearly succumbing years ago. He'd always viewed it as cowardice, particularly once he'd accepted the Dark Side for himself. Now, though, he felt a twinge of pity for Luke. He'd never managed to accept the part of himself that would've bowed to Palpatine with just a little more of a push. That was his burden to bear. Ben had a feeling his self-doubt would follow Luke forever, even as he was now.

 ** _But it doesn't have to be our burden, too_** , Rey's voice filled his mind and he looked up at her. Her expression was grave and she searched his eyes when they met hers. Feeling her at his side and in his mind, though, erased any such fear for him. Rey knew who he was, as no one else did or ever could, and she accepted him. All of him.

 ** _I'm not afraid of what I am_** , he responded silently. **_It's made me strong and led me to you. Whatever it took to get here, it was worth it._**

 ** _Even though it cost you your family and made you suffer my gran— Palpatine's cruelty?_** Rey questioned hesitantly.

Lines formed between her brows and he could feel her thinking that she wasn't sure she was worth all that. Ben struggled to rise, letting her help him even as she silently railed at him to remain seated. He stubbornly ignored the pain grinding through his leg, shifting off it and wrapping his arms firmly around Rey's waist, pulling her into him so nothing separated them, not even thin air.

"I wish we could have met differently. That we could have found one another without all the…terrible things that led us here. But for all that we’ve both suffered, I can’t regret any of it. To be with you is worth _any_ price, Rey," Ben said, voice strong and sure, unconcerned about their audience. His whole focus was the woman in his arms and the way she made him feel whole. He passed that thought through the Bond, flooding her with all she meant to him, holding nothing back.

Rey's face screwed up at the overwhelming emotions coursing through her, his and hers. She brought her hands up to rest on his cheeks, again, and gazed straight into his soul as she reciprocated his offering with the full force of her own feelings. It was everything.

Ben leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead, lingering for a moment just to bask in the closeness. Before long, though, he took her hands away from his face and stepped away. He'd been keeping tabs on how Rey was holding up under the corruption's pressure and knew they needed to go, now. She nodded gratefully, pulling her hands from his grasp and tucking herself into his wounded side, again, throwing his arm over her shoulder to help support his weight.

They turned back to the triumvirate of Force spirits. Ben had expected disapproval, but found quiet acceptance of the attachment he shared with his Force-mate.

Well, except in one case. Anakin was grinning widely and gave him a hearty wink when their gazes met. Rey laughed outright and Ben huffed in amusement at his grandfather's disregard for the Jedi Code. But then, the man had flagrantly disobeyed it himself, so who was he to judge?

"Time for you to go. Get Rey out of here and don't worry about the rest of it for the moment," Anakin said, his smile fading, but not disappearing entirely. "There'll be time to consider the future and we'll give you what guidance we can."

"Thank you," Rey said quietly and Ben bobbed his chin in acknowledgement.

"Better late than never, right?" Anakin quipped and the glow around his translucent form started to fade.

That stung a little, though Ben now knew it hadn't been the fault of the Jedi that they'd been unable to reach out to him all these years. He made himself let it go, though, as he watched his grandfather, uncle, and Master Yoda recede back into the Cosmic Force until they felt they were needed, once more. After a moment, he and Rey stood alone in the shattered remains of yet another throne room they'd torn apart between them.

"Ready?" Rey quietly asked, squeezing his arm gently.

"Yeah," Ben answered, smiling down at her. She stared at it and he sensed with amusement that she was still astonished by the sight of such an expression on his face.

"Come on," he said, nudging her towards the corridor leading to the stone lift.

Rey helped him hobble, their progress painfully slow, but she made no complaint. She made him pause every now and then when she felt the discomfort get to be too much, sending small pulses of healing energy towards him in spite of his disapproval.

"I don't know why I bother," Ben griped as they approached the massive carved statues that guarded over the way out. "You've never listened to me before."

"Where would we be if I had?" Rey shot back, not bothering to hide her smile at his grumpiness.

He sighed in defeat, reaching his mind out to the lift once they'd boarded the platform. Fortunately, whatever had prevented the mechanisms from working when he'd arrived was no longer hindering them. The lift began to rise towards the surface.

Ben looked up at the light shining down towards them as they rose, but then turned his gaze back down to Rey. She was fiddling with the pouch on her belt, digging for her commlink so she could hail her friends. He wasn't looking forward to crossing paths with either Dameron or FN-2 _—_ _Finn_ , again, but they had little choice. Rey needed to get away from the travesty the Sith had made of this planet and he wasn't about to waste any more time, no matter how challenging it would be for him to hold his temper in check around the cheeky pilot and one-time Stormtrooper.

Finding the device, Rey dialed in a code so she could connect once they were above ground. Then she looked up at him, drawn to his gaze as though magnetized. Force, but he could stare at her forever. Rey's smile told him she felt the same.

The static-filled air of the planet's surface blew about them as the platform came to a groaning halt, sealing away the Dark heart of all that remained of the Sith far below. They'd done it. They'd fulfilled a prophecy and survived. All that paled in comparison to what they'd found in each other, though. The wonder of it filled him with hope. While she still held the commlink in her palm, the code she'd entered already establishing its connection, Rey just kept looking up at him.

"Rey?! Rey, is that you?" gasped a young woman on the other end of the comm. Help was at-hand.

They ignored it, though. They ignored everything as Ben once more reached out to draw Rey close and fold her in his arms where she belonged. Smiling, she rose up on her toes to press her lips to his, and nothing else mattered to him but the warmth that filled the Bond between them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess what? I have no willpower. You may have noticed that I've upped the chapter count to 4 with this release, meaning that another segment is incoming. It will be an epilogue chapter and I'm happy to say that it's intended to be fun, stress-relieving, and full o' fluff! There's no smut—sorry! sorry!—but there'll be lots of soft Reylo to melt over. I hope you'll join me for it!
> 
> **BTS Ramblings…**
> 
> **Imprisoning the Jedi:** You know, I just couldn't get over the fact that Ben never once was offered any guidance from Anakin (the REAL Anakin). Why the heck would he be abandoned that way? Sure, his isolation is a key theme of his childhood and character development, but you have to have an actual reason for why contact would have been withheld. We'd seen Anakin's Force spirit materialize at the end of ROTJ, so he had the ability to appear, if necessary. So, what prevented him when it came to his grandson? I needed an answer to that question to have any peace of mind on the topic, so this is what I pulled together. I figure Palpatine would've wanted to take steps to keep Ben away from the positive influence of Anakin or any other Light Side Force user who'd try to offer him some help. What better way than to lock the 'door' through which those spirits would have passed through in order to reach out? Would that really be possible, even for someone as powerful as Palpatine? Ehh, who knows. It makes for an interesting idea, though!
> 
>  **Ow:** Huh. I've just realized I had a character say "Ow" in each of the three chapters of this story. Like grandfather, like grandson, I guess. Maybe I need to rename this fic…
> 
>  **Luke & Anakin's Appearances:** You probably caught the disparity, here. Luke appears like the crusty, old man we remember, yet Anakin still looks young. I don't give an explanation in-story, but I did give it some thought as I wrote their descriptions. I decided to go with the "certain point of view" approach and established that Force spirits would take on the appearance they identified with. Luke made peace with how he'd let himself go before dying, so how he looked after death would be of little consequence to him. Anakin, on the other hand, is a totally different matter. While it's true that we saw an older, post-redemption Anakin as a Force spirit at the end of ROTJ (before the remaster…), I feel that the appearance he had before falling to the Dark Side would be the version of himself he identified with in terms of being 'Anakin Skywalker,' rather than Vader. It's the face Padme loved, the one Obi Wan had called a brother, and that his mother had clasped in love before dying.


	4. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because one last kiss is never enough... ♥

"Ow!"

"Don't be such a baby! Hold still."

"I'm fine, Rey. Just leave it be."

"You've been stomping around on a broken leg, but me trying to clean the dirt out of your split lip is beyond your pain tolerance?"

"I'm not sitting here stabbing my finger into my leg," Ben grumbled, then quirked a brow at her. "And I don't stomp."

Rey snorted lightly, stabbing her fingers right back into the task of clearing the grime of Exegol from the cut that had opened back up on him when they'd kissed on the lift. She kept a bacta wipe in her utility pouch for small cuts like this and was putting it to good use. She shifted in Ben's lap where he'd plunked her as soon as she'd gotten him to sit down while she spoke to someone named Rose over her commlink. Her friend had agreed to rendezvous with her at the site she'd landed _Red Five_. It was an easy mark to spot on this desolate planet, the tracker she'd used to lay the trail to the Sith homeworld still transmitting. They'd huddled themselves underneath the ship, Ben leaning his back against the retractable landing strut. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but it was better than remaining out in the open where sparks of static discharged from the ground, stabbing up towards the turbulent clouds above. It was going to be a tense wait.

Ben's arms, looped loosely around Rey's hips, tightened briefly. He was dreading this, but there were no alternatives that he could make out. Rey was struggling to withstand the corrupted Force energy that infected this place, courtesy of her grandfather and his loyalists. They needed to get out of here as quickly as possible so that she could lower her mental shield and recover from the toxic onslaught bent on crushing the radiant nexus of Light she embodied. Which meant the Resistance. For her, he'd have to swallow his temper and place his faith in her friends … all of whom likely wanted to kill him.

"I'm sorry."

He looked up at her and saw the lines of regret scoring her delicate face. Rey's mind curled around his, their consciousnesses cuddled happily up to one another like besotted loth cats. She knew what he'd been worrying about and it made her sad that he was being forced into putting his life in the hands of his enemies for her sake. He couldn't stand seeing her this way.

"Don't apologize, Rey," Ben told her, raising a hand to brush a sweat-curled lock of her hair off her forehead and slide his fingertips down the side of her face. "I just want to get you out of here so you can breathe without choking on this planet's poison."

"I'm fine," she tried to convince him, exasperation filling her voice. He could feel the way the miasma seeped through her shield, though, strong as it was. His uncle had assured them Rey was in no real danger, protected like this, but Ben wasn't about to take chances.

"We can try the TIE," Rey offered. "I'll take a quick look at it and tighten things up before we go."

It was Ben's turn to snort.

"The only way that piece of junk is getting off the ground is if the planet explodes out from under it," he said, dropping his hand to settle against her lower back, again, linking his fingers. "Besides, your friends are already on their way."

She nodded reluctantly, then went back to poking at his face. He figured that if she were to go on working out her worry on his lip any longer he'd wind up with a permanent scar, and he'd only just gotten rid of the last one she'd given him, thanks.

"Rey," Ben entreated, pulling his head out of her hold and snagging her attention. "You're about to burst with tension. I can feel it practically vibrating in your mind."

She winced guiltily and sighed. Dropping her hands down to rest on his shoulders, she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. He sent some of his strength along the Bond to help bolster her, which earned him a smile when she looked back at him. Calmer, Rey squeezed his shoulders in thanks.

"Talk to me, Ben," she asked quietly. "I need help keeping my mind from jumping to lightspeed, here. Tell me something I don’t know. Something about you."

"About me?" he looked at her in bewilderment.

"Yeah," Rey replied, meeting his eyes, but picking at the rough weave of his shirt with agitated fingers. "We have this Bond between us. Touching your mind feels as natural as breathing and I've never felt so happy and at peace as I do right now."

She smiled up at him and he pulled her in just a little bit closer.

"There's so much that ties us together, but _—_ " she paused, smile dimming into something that was almost shy. "But we don't really know each other."

"There isn't anyone in the galaxy who knows me better than you do, Rey," he told her, meaning every word. It failed to satisfy her, though.

"Yes, but we don't _know_ one another. As people."

Ben was starting to catch on to what she meant. They'd been bound together through the Force in the fulfillment of some pre-destined mandate and spent more than a year in an intricate dance of advance and retreat with one another. The Bond, when its effects had first manifested after he'd broken into her mind and accidentally initiated her awakening, had forced them together over and over. It had been a revelation, finding this woman who felt so innately precious to him. He'd known, even as she'd shut him out after the Battle of Crait, that there would never be anyone who could ever mean so much.

Yet, Rey had a point. As close as they were, Ben didn't know most of the simpler details of her life and desires. True, he could sense them through the Bond if he tried, but he could tell she didn't want to do it that way.

He found that he didn't either.

"I test-fly the new TIE prototypes before they're approved for mass production," he said. "And I write the technical reports for the engineers to reference for further development on them."

Her eyes widened with interest. Ben had known she'd like to hear about that, gearhead that she was.

 ** _See? I do know a few things about you, Sweetheart,_** he teased her silently, smirking at the way her eyes narrowed in mock threat. She was enjoying this and he felt delight fill him at having helped take her mind off their impending troubles.

Rey's lips pursed and she tapped her fingers on his shoulders in thought before settling on something to share with him.

"I built my own speeder from parts I salvaged over the years on Jakku," she said and smiled when she felt through the Bond that he was gratifyingly impressed.

And that's how they settled in to wait for their rescuers to arrive. Ben offered something about himself and Rey would return the favor by revealing a detail from her background. After a bit, they each started asking questions, wanting to know more.

_How much salvage earned you a full portion? How many spare ships do you have stowed away to replace the ones that get blown up … or set on fire…? What was it like exploring the remnants of Imperial Star Destroyers? Where did you find the design for your crossblade lightsaber?_

They went on like this, passing questions back and forth, offering up answers that resulted in smiles and sometimes even laughter. He discovered that Rey's favorite color was green because she'd fallen in love with the rich forests of Takodana the first time she'd seen them. In return, Ben even found himself revealing that his hobby while growing up was calligraphy, a soothing pastime that helped quiet his mind.

When Rey asked how he'd learned to fly, however, Ben's pleasure slipped away.

"What's wrong, Ben?" she asked, worry laced through her voice. Sensing his disquiet, she leaned forward so her arms could wrap around his neck in an effort to comfort him.

"It's all right," he told her, shaking his head and kicking himself for ruining their interlude.

"No, it isn’t," Rey insisted, refusing to let him look away from her. "I upset you. I'm sorry."

" _Please_ ," Ben said, voice coming out a little hoarse. "Please, Rey. Don’t apologize to me."

She blinked at that. He'd told her not to apologize before, but he knew she'd thought he just meant her concern over him having to face her friends. In truth, Ben had meant it more universally. For all the offenses he'd perpetrated against her, there was nothing in all the galaxy she could ever need to seek his forgiveness for.

Sighing, he closed his eyes. Though she kept her arms around him, he could feel her trying to give him a little mental space for privacy, but she struggled to withdraw her mind from where it nestled with his. Ben sent a wordless sentiment to her, letting her know it was okay. He didn't ever want Rey's presence to leave him, even if it meant she saw him in his weak moments.

**_You're not weak, Ben. And I'll always be here for you, I promise. I don't want to be parted from you, either._ **

That gave him what he needed to look back at her. Her star-flecked hazel eyes were full of regret for making him hurt, but he just shook his head again, this time at her.

"It's fine," Ben repeated, voice coming out a little stronger. "It wasn't the question, not really. And I'm not angry at you for asking it. I was just … caught off-guard."

Rey nodded, feeling the way his mind was settling, now. Her fingers were combing gently through his hair where her hands rested on the back of his neck. It made him smile a little and she returned it.

"My actual flying lessons didn't begin for several more years, but the first time I set my hands on the controls of a starship was when I was four," he told her, speaking the words slowly. They hurt, but the look she was giving him made it okay. All the same, he couldn't quite finish out loud, so he showed her with his mind.

Little hands running over the blinking controls, perked-up ears eagerly listening to the chirrups and beeps from the navicomputer as a proud voice told him what to do. Big hands holding him steady, occasionally pointing to this button or that lever. The growly encouragement from his co-pilot and fellow partner-in-crime. Golden dice sparkling from where they dangled above his head.

Rey stared silently at Ben as he shared one of his most treasured memories, desperately stowed away in the back of his mind so that Snoke couldn't find it and twist it into something ugly. He'd found himself willing to forget that special day with his father rather than surrender it to his Master.

His lips trembled a little and he strained to swallow past the lump in his throat. When a tear leaked down his face, Rey reached up to wipe it away. She was crying silently herself, moved by Ben's memory.

 ** _There'll be time for the hard questions later. There's a lot we'll have to … figure out. To make peace with. But not today_** , she sent through the Bond, eyes serious. Ben thought not just of his troubled childhood, but of all the things he'd done as Kylo Ren, the ways he'd made her and the galaxy suffer. Rey pressed gently, but insistently on his mind, though, and he nodded in acceptance. He let it go, for now.

"Ask me something else," he prompted, practically begging. He wanted nothing more than to let this painful moment go and recapture the easy companionship that had disappeared so quickly.

"What's your favorite color?" Rey inquired after a few seconds, at a loss as to what to ask at this point. He felt her consider that she already knew the answer to her question, which caused a sudden spurt of humor to break through the melancholy.

A laugh startled out of Ben, taking him by surprise. With almost no effort at all, she'd chased away the shadows that had moved in to enfold them both.

"Black," he ruefully admitted, confirming her guess and making her laugh, her breath brushing his face. He loved it. He loved…

Rey's laughter came to an abrupt halt and she stared at him. Equally stunned at the turn his thoughts had taken, Ben watched her nervously.

Before either of them could figure out how to react, bright lights shone down on them as the hum of a massive engine heralded the Resistance's arrival. They sat there for a beat longer, uncomfortable, but unwilling to let go of what was almost said. There was going to be a lot of explaining to do, however, so Rey bit her lip as she pulled out of Ben's arms and rose to her feet.

"Stay here. I'll be back after I've explained the … situation," she told him as she looked up at the ship while it descended towards the planet's surface, avoiding his eyes. When the ship landed, she paced away from Ben, leaving him behind to approach the lowering ramp where her friends poured out to clasp her in a big group hug.

Ben watched her go, numb. He'd admitted to himself what he felt for Rey, dropped every barrier he'd once held up against her, kissed and held her in his arms. And yet, he only now realized that for all that, the words that lay behind it hadn't been spoken to the person they held so much importance for.

Whatever _he_ felt, though, that didn't necessarily mean that Rey would feel the same. Affection was one thing, but…well. It wasn't quite what he'd had in mind.

Staring at her back as she spoke animatedly with the former Stormtrooper and a little bit of a thing wearing a curious pendant around her neck, Ben waited for Rey, trying not to let his heart break.

* * *

They sat in the crew quarters of the YT-1300f Corellian freighter, Rey helping him strap a large bacta patch and ice pack around his broken leg. As he held the pack in place, letting Rey tie off the straps, Ben let his eyes wander surreptitiously around the familiar space. Naturally, the rescue party just _had_ to show up in the _Millennium Falcon_.

 _Of fucking course_ , he griped to himself. Rey peeked up at him before quickly returning to what she was doing, and he felt his heart clench at that.

He needed to cool it, but was failing spectacularly. Facing the Resistance who'd gaped at the man they all still called 'Kylo Ren' hadn't been especially easy. There had been arguments and snide remarks even though Rey had already extracted promises from the lot of them that they'd keep Ben's presence a secret while they headed somewhere safe.

Recalling some of the cruder comments made, he looked towards the corridor leading to the bridge, raising a brow at their watchful guards. A steely-eyed Poe Dameron and decidedly hostile Finn glared daggers at their 'guest'. Feeling the need to vent a little, he chose Dameron to lock eyes with, remembering the way the pilot's hand had swept down Rey's back as he'd hugged her earlier, travelling too far for Ben's liking. His target welcomed the silent challenge and crossed his arms belligerently as they made the air practically smoke between them.

"Stop it, both of you!"

Startled, they each swiveled around at Rey's angry command. She was scowling fiercely, fixing first Dameron with a scalding look, but then shifting her eyes to settle them furiously on Ben. He'd faced intimidating gazes in his time, but even the former Supreme Leader didn't have the spine to meet that one. Working his jaw, he turned away from the pilot, seeing Dameron spin on his heel and storm off out of the corner of his eye.

"Finn, give us a few minutes alone, please," Rey requested quietly, rubbing the back of her neck as she straightened and sat on the bench beside Ben. The straps were secure and he could feel the bacta begin to dull the pain.

At first, the Stormtrooper stayed where he was, fuming after watching their enemy _—f_ _ormer_ enemy _—_ cross blades with his best friend. When Rey shot him an ominous look of her own, though, he turned and followed after Dameron.

Left alone, the two of them sat stiffly, both unsure how to proceed after what had passed between them outside. Ben watched Rey hesitantly, wishing he could take back his thoughtless almost-declaration and bring back her smile full of sunshine. He couldn't turn back time, however. Trust him to ruin it all.

**_You didn't ruin anything, Ben._ **

He took a breath as he heard her voice reach mutely for him, again. They'd been so wrapped around one another for the past several hours that the wall of silence between their minds seemed unnatural. Unbearable.

Ben was flooded with relief despite the tension that remained between them. He didn't have a clue how to diffuse it, never particularly successful with getting her to come around in the past.

"And I do, you know?" Rey said, her voice startling him, though she spoke softly.

Turning to regard her fully, Ben tried to figure out what she was referring to. She raised her own face to look at him and gasped an irritated laugh, shaking her head. Then she turned her body towards him, reaching across the space between them and placing her warm palms on his leg gently.

"I love you," Rey said, eyes intense as she spoke the most extraordinary words he'd ever heard. Seeing his bafflement, she laughed as she repeated herself. "I love you, Ben Solo."

Ben released a breath he had no idea he'd been holding, eyes wide in astonishment as he gawked at the most beautiful and amazing woman in the galaxy. His Force-mate. His Rey.

She smiled at his thoughts, chaotic though they came.

"I was just surprised," she explained. "Earlier, I mean. When I felt what you were thinking I just couldn't believe it."

"But you do?" Ben asked, mind still a little stuck on her previous statement, wanting to be sure he'd heard her right.

"Yes, you _infuriating_ luggabeast!" she laughed, throwing her hands up in the air.

He felt his lips spread in the wobbliest, most awkward smile anyone had probably ever seen, but he didn't care in the least.

 _She loves me_ , he thought, repeating her words over and over in his head, still in shock.

Rey watched Ben with exasperation as he pulled himself together. It took a long minute or two, but eventually he managed to achieve some level of effective mental processes.

With sobriety came a bit of awkwardness as they sat there across from one another, her words shifting the atmosphere around them. Unwilling to let this moment turn uncomfortable and wanting nothing more than to hold Rey again, Ben searched for something to say. Thinking hard, he landed on something that made his eyes light with anticipation.

"Ask me a question," Ben invited, offering her a small lift of his lips. The smile she gave him was considerably larger, given that it was Rey. She didn't do anything by halves.

Scooting herself along the bench, she reclaimed the spot she'd seemed to have designated as hers, tucked up under his arm as she leaned into his side. Feeling Rey settle against him, Ben finally relaxed completely. She felt so wonderful, so perfect. She felt like home.

"Let's see," she mused playfully, tipping her head to meet his eyes as she thought of a question to ask. After a moment, a slight flush spread across her cheeks and he sensed her think about the way he'd kissed her on the ground of Palpatine's throne room. Before they'd been rudely interrupted, that is. Considering her with interest, Ben wondered what she was about to ask him. He cast a quick look at the corridor, ensuring they weren't about to be interrupted again, just in case she had decided she wanted to spend their time alone doing something other than asking questions. Following that thought, Rey gave him a light smack on the back of his hand, resting in her lap. Raising an eyebrow at him, she did, in fact, proceed to ask him something.

"How did you learn to kiss like that?"

_Fuck._

**_No, Ben. Just kissing._ **

He groaned. Shifting uncomfortably and feeling the force of her increasingly fascinated look, Ben tried desperately not to blush. Shooting another glance at the corridor, he prayed that someone would come in to prevent him from having to say anything. He'd even welcome Dameron and Finn with open arms.

"They're in the cockpit with Rose and Chewie, we can both feel it. I think they'd be tickled at the idea that you'd like them to save you, though," Rey needled, grinning broadly.

She was right. The two lifeforces were pacing agitatedly around the cockpit, joined by the familiar lifeforce of Uncle Chewie, who was quickly losing patience with the two human irritants. The reunion with his uncle had gone surprisingly well, though it would take time to fully forgive what lay between them. The Wookie had even given him a hug, though, before turning to get the _Falcon_ ready for take-off. It had left his nerves a little raw, all in all, and Chewie wasn't known for his patience. Dameron and Finn might just wind up stuffed in the smuggler's stash.

"Uncle?" Rey asked with interest and Ben lunged for the opening.

"Yes," Ben said, more than happy to admit to this embarrassing element of his past over the other one. "It's what I called him. He was practically my third parent until Luke took me in."

Normally, talking about his childhood like this would hurt, but he was far too relieved to have dodged the blaster bolt to care.

"That's sweet," Rey responded, making him wince at the adjective she chose. Then her gaze sharpened. "Now, back to my question."

Ben hadn't dodged it, after all, then. He should've known better than to try outmaneuvering Rey. Rubbing his free hand over his face, he let out a sigh and gave in.

"Well," Ben began. "There was this…game."

"A game," Rey repeated, not following.

"We used to play it in the evenings... _sometimes,"_ he recounted, tripping over his words as he rushed to get this over with. "Not often! Just on the… _rare_ …occasion that Skywalk _—_ that Luke left the training temple to visit my Mom or Lor San Tekka."

"Okay. So, what was this game all you Padawans _rarely_ played?"

He sighed.

**_You're not going to let this go, are you?_ **

**_Not a chance, Ben. Spill it._ **

He eyed her warily. There was no reality in which he could imagine ever wanting to admit this, but he knew Rey would not let him escape the conversation. Seeing no way out, he took a deep breath and plunged on in.

"Spin the Lightsaber."

Her brows rose at the absurd name and he nodded self-deprecatingly.

"You sit in a circle with everyone. Then you put your lightsaber on the floor and give it a spin," he held up a finger, circling it in the air to illustrate. It only made him feel more ridiculous, though, so he lowered his hand with a frustrated exhale. "Whoever the lightsaber was pointing at when it stopped was your … um, partner."

_Any chance she'll leave it at that?_

This was Rey, so of course not. Tenacity was practically her middle _—_ oh, never mind.

"And what would you do with the partner fate chose for you?"

"You're the partner fate gave me, Sweetheart," he tried, feeling as desperate as he'd seen his father become when his mother had let him talk himself into a corner.

"Don't banthashit me, Ben," she rolled her eyes at the pathetic attempt to distract her.

"You'd go off into a room together and, well...kiss," he choked out, thankful that his hair covered his burning ears. " _Just_ kiss, Rey. That's _all_."

Ben cringed inside, bracing for the outrage. Eyeing her cautiously, he noticed that Rey's shoulders were shaking, then her mouth was bending upwards. And suddenly she was laughing.

_Right. Not the reaction I was expecting._

He looked at her in bewilderment, utterly lost, which only made her laugh harder. It took her a good few minutes for Rey to catch her breath, leaving him sitting there, feeling like the kriffing idiot she'd called him not too long ago.

"So, you've never…," Rey gasped out before trailing off, her hilarity finally petering out. She didn't really need to finish the question, though. It was obvious she'd thought that if Ben knew his way around a woman's mouth, then he probably knew a whole lot more about…well, the other bits.

"No, I haven't," he answered immediately, shifting a little uncomfortably. "Kisses and some groping were one thing, but anything more would never have gotten past Luke. Besides, I wasn't really interested in any of the girls that way and Tai and I never _—_ ," he stopped, clearing his throat. Rey raised a curious brow, following his thoughts with interest, then smiling at the innocence of youthful bonds that had been shaped by time and circumstance.

"Then…I'll have one of your firsts," she uttered quietly, smiling up into his eyes as she took the hand in her lap, holding it between both of hers. Ben answered with a tender smile of his own and couldn't stop himself from leaning down to plant a short, but heated kiss on her lips that held worlds'-worth of promise.

Pulling away, he cupped her face in his other hand. He was still finding himself doubting that she was real. That any of this was. What had he ever done to deserve her?

Rey raised her brow suggestively, now nudging his mind silently with hers to remind Ben of the direction they'd been headed before he'd pulled his libido back in check. She'd almost gotten that first out of him right there on the stone floor. The reminder made him kick himself mentally, embarrassed that he'd let things get so out of control. She was discovering all of this for the first time and she'd certainly been more than willing to continue her education if he hadn't maneuvered them off that track. That didn't mean she wasn't curious, though. She'd understood, he thought, but Ben wondered whether she resented it, even a little.

"I'm sorry if I disappointed you," he sighed regretfully, but Rey only shook her head at him.

"I haven't been disappointed once since you came back to me, Ben Solo," Rey said softly, though she met his gaze firmly. Then her lips twisted like she was holding in a laugh. "Although, your change of heart had fortunate timing, as it happens."

He huffed a short laugh, more than willing to ride along on the happy turn in the conversation she'd led them down. Thinking about the grudging acceptance of Luke and the avidly encouraging wink his grandfather had shot him, Ben couldn't help but agree. He knew he wanted to be with her in every way, to share what he felt for Rey not just through his mind, but to express it with his body, as well. When it happened, though, he'd rather not have an audience.

Tightening his arm around her, Ben leaned down and nuzzled his nose against Rey's temple. He placed a soft kiss there before sighing, wholly content for the first time in his life.

"I used to think there were no happy endings," he said quietly. He felt her smile through the Bond, knew that her nose wrinkled at him teasingly.

"Well, whether there are or there aren't, I hope we won't be able to tell for a long time yet," Rey quipped, though her voice held a seriousness that anchored him. "When we get there I think we'll manage to make it worth while, though."

Ben raised his head to look down at her, seeing the absolute belief that her gaze held.

"But wherever we end up, all I know right now is that I've never been happier in my life," she murmured as she smiled and it was like the sun cresting the horizon over the cliffs beyond Hanna City at dawn.

Ben couldn't care less about possible interruptions and the shouts of outrage he'd get if they were caught as he pulled Rey in against him and kissed her again, this time long and tender.

"I love you, Ben," she whispered against his lips, holding his hand tight.

"I know," he replied as he opened his eyes and looked at her with the full force of all he felt.

Rey smiled, her Light radiating along their Bond and embracing him so completely he let himself believe, too. Through it, Ben also passed the most earnest feeling he'd ever allowed himself, letting it flow into her mind and find its home in her heart.

**_I love you, too._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **BTS Ramblings:**
> 
> **Spin the Lightsaber:** Oh Rian, I love you! Ever since I read that interview about how Rian imagined the Padawans would secretly play kissing games I've wanted to fit that into a fic. 
> 
> **Tai and I Never…:** Yes, I wanted to throw this in there. _TROKR_ gave rise to a number of fan theories, one of the most popular of which was that a male childhood friend of Ben's at the Jedi temple was actually his first crush. Is Ben Solo bisexual or demisexual? (TY, EEOperator!) There's no real confirmation one way or the other, but it's a fun little detail that I think further enriches such a complex personality. And for those who clutch their pearls over it, let me just point out that his heart ultimately belonged to Rey in the end. Ergo, he loved her so much that her gender was irrelevant. Happy Pride Month, everyone! ♥


End file.
